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♦ 


THE 


POLISH-AMERICAN 


SYSTEM OF CHRONOLOGY, 

REPRODUCED, 'WITH SOME MODIFICATIONS. FROM 


GENERAL BE M'S 

FRANCO-POLISH METHOD. 


ELIZABETH P. PEABODY. 


BOSTON: 

13 WEST STREET. 

NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY. 
1850, 


4--CE 

£6 


Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1849, 
By Elizabeth P. Peabody, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 


-In exchange 

Harpar f ; tf^ ^ 

MAY 15 1941 




is i 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The Charts of Chronology are intended to do for 
the science of history what maps do for that of geog- 
raphy ; and they will make it as easy to lay the foun- 
dations of historical knowledge in the minds of the 
young, as we are able to do those of geographical. 
Indeed, the Charts give greater proportional aid than 
maps ; and it is more easy to learn to understand their 
principle. 

It is obvious to common sense, that where every 
man in the community — we had almost said every 
woman — has a direct influence upon the measures of 
government, as in our country, a general knowledge 
of history is absolutely necessary to the common weal; 
and when it shall have become as usual for every 
common school pupil to know the great epochs of time, 
and the leading events of history, as it now is for them 
to know the general topography of the globe, it will 
seem no less strange that any one should be ignorant 
of them, than it now does to remember the time, within 
the' memory of our living parents , when the bounda- 
ries of nations, and their relations in space to each 
other, were known only to the few cultivated persons 
who had sufficient activity of imagination to picture 
them out by means of descriptions in words, such as 
are found in Morse’s old Geography. 


4 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The invention of the Charts by General Bern makes 
an era in education as important as the invention of 
the school atlas by Goldsmith. The literary societies 
in France recognized their importance immediately 
upon their appearance ; and, on their recommendation, 
the government, in 1844, decreed their immediate in- 
troduction into all the schools, from the primary up to 
the polytechnic, and into the royal colleges. 

The reproducer into English of the Franco-Polish 
mnemonics of chronology, needs, therefore, to offer 
no apology for introducing to her countrymen a work 
so available for the education of one and all. 

Instructors who are themselves not well educated in 
history, may yet dare to undertake to teach chronology 
with the help of this manual ; and it must be obvious 
that highly-accomplished teachers can unfold and de- 
velop the subject to an indefinite extent. 

The years of time are placed, as it were, before the 
eyes, in the Charts; so that they can never be con- 
founded with each other in the mind. Particular 
years are associated with particular events ; and lead- 
ing events are first impressed on the memory, through 
the senses, by being indicated in colors within the 
representations of the years in which they occurred. 
Thus much can be taught by any instructor of common 
senses and common sense to the lower classes of learn- 
ers. But the more advanced classes, under the lead 
of more deeply-instructed minds, can follow out the 
threads of the web, and enter into the philosophical 
causes, so as to know why each event must of neces- 
sity have occurred at the time represented. 

Hence the Charts, while they are intelligible to the 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


6 


very young, may form the basis for the highest exer- 
cises and deepest studies of the most advanced minds r 
and be ever recurred to, at times, to keep the memory 
of details fresh, as we always recur to maps. 

The large “ Speaking Charts ” will be sold sepa- 
rately from the manuals ; but every pupil who has a 
manual can, after the several centuries are colored 
according to directions, paste them all on cloth in their 
proper order, in tiers of five, and thus make a chart 
for him or herself sufficiently large for the exercises 
of a group. In schools, where the classes of history 
are small, these charts for groups may serve, without 
going to the expense of the larger charts. 

Every manual will be accompanied by forty-four 
representations of a century, as every geography is 
accompanied by maps. These will be simply sewed 
together in a cover, that they may easily be taken apart 
when they have been prepared in colors, and pasted on 
the cloth or millboard. 

Some will be colored for the convenience of in- 
structors, and in order to make charts for groups ; but 
it will be best for the pupils, in all cases, to have blank 
representations, and to color them themselves, accord- 
ing to the lessons given them. Colored representations 
will necessarily be sold at a considerably higher price, 
while the operation of coloring is at once an agreeable 
and a profitable exercise for the pupils. 

The author will suggest that good paint, carefully 
discriminating the shades, is indispensable ; and that, 
where expense is to be avoided, one paint-box might 
be purchased for a whole school, to be paid for in 
common. 


1* 


6 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Paiut-boxes, of small cakes, and yet of the finest 
quality, containing exactly the colors to be used, can 
be had low at the office of publication, 13, West Street, 
Boston. 


EXPLANATION OF THE METHOD. 

The mechanism of the Charts is very simple. 
There are two large Charts, one representing the 
twenty-five centuries before Christ, another represent- 
ing twenty centuries after Christ. These may be 
combined into one, by being pasted upon one cloth, 
so as to exhibit the whole course of recorded time, 
except when it is necessary to have the representation 
made so large that the divisions can be seen from a 
great distance. Then there must be two Charts, each 
section being represented very large. 

The centuries are arranged in tiers of five, by which 
means the eye can easily command them at once, 
and the numbers of the centuries run thus : — 


25 

Before Christ. 

24 23 22 

21 

1 

After Christ. 

2 3 4 

5 

20 

19 

18 

17 

16 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

15 

14 

13 

12 

11 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

10 

9 

8 

7 

6 

16 

17 

18 

19 

— 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 







But this is not all. Each century is divided into 
one hundred squares, to correspond to the one hundred 
years ; and these squares must also be numbered in a 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


7 


direction corresponding to the numbers of the Chart. 
Thus the divisions of each century before Christ are 
v numbered thus : — 


100 

99 

98 

97 

96 

95 

94 

93 

92 

91 

90 

89 

88 

87 

86 

85 

84 

83 

82 

81 

80 

79 

78 

77 

76 

75 

74 

73 

72 

71 

70 

69 

68 

67 

66 

65 

64 

63 

62 

61 

60 

59 

58 

57 

56 

55 

54 

53 

52 

51 

60 

49 

48 

47 

46 

45 

44 

43 

42 

41 

40 

39 

38 

37 

36 

35 

34 

33 

32 

31 

30 

29 

28 

27 

26 

25 

24 

23 

22 

21 

20 

19 

18 

17 

16 

15 

14 

13 

12 

11 

10 

9 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 


In the Chart of the times after Christ, the order is 
reversed in the divisions of each century, thus : — 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

42 

43 

44 

45 

46 

47 

48 

49 

50 

51 

52 

53 

54 

55 

56 

57 

58 

59 

60 

61 

62 

63 

64 

65 

66 

67 

68 

69 

70 

71 

72 

73 

74 

75 

76 

77 

78 

79 

80 

81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

89 

90 

91 

92 

93 

94 

95 

96 

97 

98 

99 

100 


8 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Thirdly, each square, representing a year, is subdi- 
vided into nine squares, eight of them being appropri- 
ated to a particular kind of event, thus : — 


1 . 

2. 

3. 

Wars, 

Conquests, 

Losses, 

Battles, 

Inheritances, 

Dismemberments, 

or 

or 

or 

Sieges. 

Unions of States. 

Divisions of States. 

4. 

5. 

6» 

End of 

Foundation 

Miscellaneous 

a State. 

of a State, 
Revolution 
of a Government, 
or Accession of a 
Monarch. 

Events, different 
from those in either 
of the other subdi- 
visions. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

Births. 

Inventions, 

Discoveries, 

Works or Deeds 
of Illustrious 

Persons. 

Deaths. 


On the next page is given a representation of a cen- 
tury, with these nine subdivisions. It is divided into 
four parts, for more guidance to the eye. By looking 
at the vertical columns of the figures, it will be seen 
that the same digit comes as the right-hand figure in 
every square. It is most important that the student be 
made very expert in naming the years and centuries at 
a glance ; and, in order to facilitate this, a large blank 
chart should be hung upon the wall, side by side, or 
alternately with another, on which the numbers are 
written, and the instructor point with his stick to the 
different compartments of each, till they are all thor- 




10 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


oughly learned. They can be fixed forever by perse- 
vering exercise for a few lessons, and are never to be 
learnt again. It is therefore time gained to have 
these mechanical points completely mastered in the 
first place. 

In the original system, as published by General Bern 
in Paris, there were three great mural charts; one 
representing the centuries from the 26th to the 50th 
before Christ. I have omitted the one representing 
the centuries anterior to the 25th, for reasons which I 
shall give in the introductory chapter of the Appendix, 
where I shall treat of the Chronology of the Earliest 
Ages, and the controversies respecting it. 

Another thing which General Bern introduced into 
the system, was a set of colors to represent different 
nations. In the Polish-American system, I have made 
a somewhat different, and, as it seems to me, a more 
expressive distribution of the colors. 

TABLE OF COLORS. 

1. For China, pale yellow, (lemon or king’s yellow.) 

2. “ India, Naples yellow. 

3. “ Scythia and Tartary, yellow ochre. 

4. “ Arabia, gamboge yellow, which color is con- 

tinued in modern history for the Mahom- 
etan sway every where. 

5. “ Babylon, crimson, (carmine.) 

6. “ Assyria, purple lake. 

7. “ Media, violet. 

8. “ Persia, bluish purple, which is resumed in 

modern history. 

9. “ Phoenicia, black. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


11 


10. For Hebrews, bright orange color, which is re- 

sumed in modern history for United States 
of America. 

“ Greece, different shades of blue, viz. : 

11. “ Pelasgians, palest blue. 

12. “ Ionians, including Athens, bright blue. 

13. “ Dorians, including Sparta, deep blue. 

14. “ Macedonians, blue black (neutral tint). 

“ African nations, different shades of brown 

15. “ Ethiopia, reddest brown (burnt umber). 

16. “ Egypt, yellow brown (raw umber). 

17. “ Carthage, darkest brown (Cologne earth). 

18. “ Rome (vermilion), which continues through 

the empire of the West, and is resumed by 
the Carlovingian empire, and by the Ger- 
man empire, while the Greek empire at 
Constantinople takes the old Macedonian 
blue black. 

“ Slavonian nations, pink (lake). 

19. “ Russian, deep pink. 

20. “ Poland, light rose color. 

“ Scandinavian nations, including, 

21. “ Sweden, Norway, bluish green. 

22. “ Denmark, olive green. 

23. “ Celtic nations, including Ireland, emerald green. 

24. “ German nations, yellow green, (except the 

empire.) 

England, the purple of Assyria. 

France, the blue of Athens. 

Spain, light or Venetian red. 

Portugal, Indian red. 

United States, the orange color of the Jews. 
Other American nations, pale orange. 


12 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


If it is absolutely impossible to get paint, the above 
numbers can be placed in the subdivisions, to denote 
the nations ; but where this is done, a vast advantage 
is given up. The attention requisite to paint the 
events according to directions, impresses the colors, 
as appropriated to each nation, on the memory ; so 
that, on a glance, it is obvious what nation’s events 
are represented in any particular subdivision ; and 
thus, especially, are synchronisms learnt with no 
trouble at all. 


PLAN OF STUDY. 

We now suppose the pupil perfectly expert in naming 
any year of any century to which the instructor points 
on the Mural Chart. 

The first lessons should be upon epochs, the great 
leading facts of history, such as the call of Abraham, 
the deliverance from Egypt, the division of the old 
Babylonian empire into Assyria, Media, and Babylon, 
the foundation of Rome, the Persian invasion of 
Greece, &c. These will be very conspicuously repre- 
sented on the Charts, and the instructor will point to 
these representations, and name the events ; all the 
pupils repeating them after him. 

After some exercises of this sort, the pupils are 
directed to their manuals. Each pupil is supposed to 
have one, together with forty-four representations of 
centuries, accompanying the manual, as an atlas accom- 
panies a geography. These representations should each 
have the name of a century written over them, viz. : 
the first will be 25th B. C., the second 24th B. C., 
down to 1st B, C. ; and then it will be 1st, 2d, A. C. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


13 


&c., to the 19th, or present century after Christ. 
When the pupils are very young, they may merely be 
told, on beginning their chronological studies, that the 
25th century before Christ is not the beginning of the 
history of the human race, but that before this time 
we do not know in what years, and hardly in what 
centuries, events occurred, except that the Chaldeans 
were established in Babylon 3333 B. C. ; and there- 
fore it is not worth while to learn those dates by heart. 
It is enough to know, in general, that there were, for 
many ages, empires in China, in India, in Persia, 
about Nineveh, about Babylon, in Egypt, and in 
Ethiopia ; that scholars are taking great pains to find 
out what they can of these old nations, from the 
ruins of temples and cities that yet remain, and 
which we know are older than twenty-five centuries 
before Christ. The locations of these old empires 
may be pointed out on a map of the world. 

To older pupils, and according to the discretion of 
the teacher, may be imparted more or less of the in- 
formation contained in the chapter on the Chronology 
of the Earliest Ages, which is addressed to the mature 
minds of teachers, and forms the beginning of the 
Appendix. 

In the manuals, the epochs are given in capital letters. 
The pupil, having prepared his centuries by writing 
its number over each, will proceed to look for the 
epochs in his manual, and color his centuries, so far as 
these epochs are concerned, according to the directions 
given. 

Having mastered the epochs, the more important 
events of history will be considered. 

2 


14 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


In the common schools, and as first lessons in all 
schools, only important events should be taught. An 
attempt at too much minuteness will defeat the end. 
which is, to make upon the senses a strong impression, 
in order to aid the remembrance and recollection of 
the great outlines of history. 

Important events are printed in the manual in a 
larger type than the minuter ones, and there are two 
ways of proceeding : — 

One is for the pupils to study, century by century, 
in their manuals, and color their representations of 
centuries according to directions, and then to recite the 
lesson from the Chart. 

But a better way is for them to study each nation’s 
chronology separately, from beginning to end ; seeking 
out the events in their manuals, and using the one 
color, representing the nation, to color the Chart with, 
until it is completely painted in. 

When this plan is pursued, the teacher should begin 
by reading, or giving in a colloquial tone, a sketch of 
the history of the people in question ; pointing out, 
upon the Mural Chart, all the leading facts to which 
he refers. Some sketches are given in the Appendix, 
for the convenience of inexperienced teachers, and 
ample directions to the sources of information upon 
each particular country. After the pupils have studied 
and painted their lessons, they are to be exercised upon 
the Mural Charts, the instructor pointing with his 
stick to the principal events as they are distinguished 
by their color, and the pupil replying with the date 
'and the event at once. 

After having gone over the whole ground, and 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


15 


painted all the histories, whose consecutive facts are 
thus made familiar, it is a profitable plan to divide the 
class into divisions, giving to one division one coun- 
try’s events, to another another country’s, and having, 
if possible, a division devoted to every contemporane- 
ous history. Then each division shall be prepared to 
tell all the important events that transpired in some 
one century, in the country appropriated to the divis- 
ion ; and the whole class being called up together, the 
instructor shall ask the dates. This will give synchro- 
nisms, which it is so very important to know. The 
pupils can be encouraged to learn what particulars 
they can, concerning the events named, and to enter- 
tain each other by the recital. 

It is obvious that, in the course of a common school 
education, as much knowledge of history may thus be 
•given to children, as there is now of geography. 
Chronology is not history, nor is topography geogra- 
phy ; but chronology and topography are the founda- 
tion and inciters to the study of history and geography 
respectively, and the Charts do as much justice to his- 
tory as mere maps do to geography. After all, every 
thing depends upon children’s being taught by in- 
structors whose own minds are full of the sciences in 
question. 


CHRONOLOGY. 

Look for the year at the left hand of the page of the 
manual. In the second column is the subdivision of 
the square, in which is represented the event named. 
At the right hand, the authority of the date is given. 


16 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


A is used for “ The Art of Verifying Dates.” 

B for Bunsen. 

N for Niebuhr. 

M for Muller. 

When no authority is mentioned for the date, it may 
be considered as undoubted, or at least undisputed. 

When the statement of the event does not indicate 
with what national color it should be painted, a direc- 
tion will be given ; but when no color is directed, the 
student must look back to the table of colors on p. 10, 
and select according to the nation to whose history the 
date belongs. By this means, he will soon learn the 
colors, and be able to understand the Mural Chart at a 
glance. * 

When no subdivision is mentioned in the manual, 
the whole square is to be painted over, as in the case 
when those leading facts occur which make epochs. 

We begin, for reasons given already, with the 25th 
century B. C. ; and at that time we know there existed, 
far to the East, the nation of Chinese ; Brahminical 
India on the banks of the Ganges ; Persia about Per- 
sepolis, stretching even to Bactria, at the sources of 
the Indus ; the kingdom of Nineveh on the Tigris ; 
Babylon on the Euphrates ; Arabia; Ethiopia and 
Egypt on the Nile ; and probably the Pelasgians in 
Europe. We indicate the existence of these nations, 
by painting, with the colors appropriated to each, the 
several subdivisions of the square representing 2500 
years B. C. W T here no subdivision is indicated, the 
whole square can be painted over. 

We will now give the lesson on epochs. 


2296 

2076 

1645 

1270 

1190 

1001 

962 

776 

759 

748 

718 

656 

606 

538 

510 

509 

494 

431 

381 

331 

167 

146 

29 


CHRONOLOGY. 


17 


PRINCIPAL EPOCHS. 

•ORMING THE FIRST LESSON ON THE MURAL CHART.) 


The Call of Abraham, (a) B 

Removal of Jacob into Egypt, ( b ) 

Moses delivers the Jews from Egypt, (b) 

Taking of Troy, (c) 

Dorian Invasion of Peloponnesus, (cZ) . 
Solomon’s Accession and Glory, (a) 
Division of Solomon’s Kingdom, ( e ) . . 

First Olympiad, (c) 

Sardanapalus’s Kingdom splits into Media 
Assyria, and Babylon, ( h ) .... 

Origin of Rome, (g) 

Destruction of Israel by Assyria, ( i ) 
Psammetichus, King of Egypt, (k) . . 

Captivity of Jews in Babylon, (Z) . . 

Cyrus conquers Babylon, and sends the Jew 

back to Judea, ( m ) 

Democracy established at Athens, by the 
Banishment of the Pisistratidse, (c) . . 

Royalty abolished at Rome, (g) . . . 

Persian War with Greece, (q) . . . 

Peloponnesian War in Greece, ( n ) . . 

Taking of Rome by Gauls, ( g ) . . . 

Alexander conquers Babylon, ( o ) . . 

Maccabees assert the Independence of Ju 

dea, (a) 

Destruction of Carthage by Rome, ( p ) 
Augustus Caesar, first Emperor of Rome, (g) 


Century . 

C. 23d. 

. 21st. 

. 17th. 
. 13th. 
. 12th. 
. 11th. 
. 10th. 


8th. 
j* 7th. 

1 6th. 

| 5th. 
| 4th. 


f 


2d. 

1st. 


(a) Orange, whole square. (6) Orange and yellow brown, 
in triangles, (c) Bright blue. ( d ) Deep blue and light 
blue, in triangles, (e) Bright and pale orange, in triangles. 
(g) lied, whole square. (A) Violet, crimson, and purple lake, 
in three divisions. (e) Purple lake and pale orange. 
(&) Yellow brown. (1) Crimson, and 3d subdivision orange. 

(m) Purple and orange, in triangles, with crimson between. 

( n ) Light and dark blue, in triangles, (o) Blue-black and 
crimson. ( p ) Bed and darkest brown, (j) Purple and 
blue. 

2 * 


18 


25th CENTURY B. C. 


2500 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 
9 


This year may be painted iri its several 
subdivisions, with the colors designating sev- 
erally the Chinese (pale yellow), the Indo- 
Persian (purple), the Indo-Braminical (Na- 
ples yellow), Assyrian (purple lake), Baby- 
lonian (crimson), Arabian (gamboge yellow), 
Egyptian (reddish brown), Ethiopian (yellow 
brown), and a Greek nation (blue) ; for all 
these nations existed at and before this era, 
though the details of their chronology are as 
yet unknown. It is unquestionable that 
Lower Egypt was posterior to Thebes ; 
Thebes to Meroe ; and it is probable that 
Meroe may have been contemporary in its 
origin with Braminical India and Chaldaic 
Babylon, the remote ancestry of all being 
the Indo-Persian empire, which throws its 
antiquity very high. Chaldaic Babylon orig- 
inated 3333 years before Christ. It was 
therefore 600 years old, at least, when the 
father of Abraham removed from Ur of the 
Chaldees. 

On the French Charts of General Bern, 
Menes, the first king of Egypt including 
Lower Egypt, is put into this century. 
But a precise date for Menes is omitted here, 
because his era is so uncertain. There is 
great difference in the interpretation of Ma- 
netho’s Lists of Kings, which is the authority 
for Egyptian history. An inspection of the 
Tables of Chronology, appended to the first 
volume of Henne’s Allgemeine Geschichte , 
gives all the different calculations of the 
critics of Manetho, showing a variation from 
2450 B. C. to 6000 B. C. Bunsen, in his 
late work on Egypt, inclines to 2885 B. C. 
A perusal of Henne’s first volume will give 
an adequate idea of chronological controversy. 


2411a CENTURY B. C. 


19 


2367 


Msa’fla of* AtjB’aSaaiai. 

color is orange.) 


(The Hebrew 
A. 


Bern places, in his Chart, the cyclic era of the Chi- 
nese 2397 B. C., on the authority of the “Art of 
verifying Dates.” But the authors of that work, who 
give a synopsis of Chinese history, from the times of 
Fohi. in the 29th century B. C., down to the Chris- 
tian era, themselves express a doubt of all their own 
chronology and history of the Chinese previous to the 
year 841 B. C. On this account, all Chinese dates, 
previous to the 9th century B. C., are omitted in this 
manual ; for it is worse than idle to learn by heart 
dates which are not ascertained. 

Bern also places in this century the invasion of the 
Shepherd Kings, and determines its very year. This 
is omitted, with all dates of Egyptian kings until 
Psammetichus ; though notice will be given, in the 
accounts of each century, of the conjectures made 
respecting some particular kings. The Egyptian his- 
tory is in a fair way to be elucidated ; but the period 
prior to Psammetichus has not yet become any thing 
of a story. 

For the history of Egypt, the curious student may 
be referred to the second book of Herodotus, (Euter- 
pe.) He should, however, remember that this is a 
statement, ex parte, of the priests of Vulcan to Herod- 
otus. The modern sources are Heeren’s Researches 
in Africa, (2d volume,) Wilkinson’s Egypt, and Bun- 
sen’s Egypt. Bunsen criticizes all his predecessors, 
and is at present the greatest authority. He says that 
the period of the Shepherd Kings, which was the 
middle empire, commenced with the fourth king of 
the 13th dynasty of Manetho, and ends with the last 
king of the 17th dynasty. 

The Allgemeine Geschichte of Professor Henne, of 
the high school of Berne, is, however, subsequent to 
Bunsen, and introduces an entirely new criticism of 
Manetho. It ought to be translated into English, as it 
contains some radically new and surprising ideas. 


23d CENTURY B. C. 


20 


2296 

6 

Call of Abraham. (Paint the whole 



square.) A. 

2284 

6 

Lot made prisoner by the king of Elam, 



(purple.) 

2280 

7 

Birth of Ishmael. 

2267 

4 

Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed. 


7 

Moab and Ammon born. 

2266 

7 

Isaac born. 

2224 

7 

Midian bom. 

2206 

7 

Birth of Esau and Jacob. 


Bern gives all the above dates on the same authority, 
but Bunsen declares that it is impossible to settle 
the exact chronology of the Hebrews before the time 
of Solomon, since the MSS. of the Scriptures differ; 
but some notices of the above events can hardly be 
omitted on the Chart, and the above dates cannot be 
widely wrong. Instructors, however, should merely 
require their pupils to say what events occurred in this 
century, without requiring the year. 

Bern places in this century, 2205 B. C., a conquest 
of Babylon by the Arabs, under their chief Mardocen- 
tes ; but this is hardly authenticated. He also places 
the accession of Yu, first emperor of the Chinese 
dynasty Ilia, in 2205 B. C. 

The Call of Abraham founds the Hebrew nation. 
He left, by religious inspiration, the consolidating 
idolatry and despotism of Babylon to exercise and 
preserve his inherited faith in the invisible God. It 
is evident that the principles of true religion were not 
universally lost in these times. The incidental men- 
tion of Melchisedek, as a worshipper of Abraham’s 
God, gives a reason for his emigration’s taking the 
direction it did. He was checked in his impulse to 
make a human sacrifice, and respect for human life 
became a characteristic peculiarity of the Hebrew 
worship. See the story of the Hebrews in the Ap- 
pendix ; and for another succinct account, see the 
Universal History of John Muller, book IX., which is 
very brilliant. 


2 2d CENTURY B. C. 


21 


Beat3a of Abraham, aged 175. A. 

Birth of Edom, son of Esau. “ 

Birth of Reuben. « 

Birth of Simeon. « 

Birth of Levi. « 

Birth of Judah and Ban. “ 

Birth of Naphtali and Gad. « 

Birth of Ashur, Issachar, and Zebulon. “ 

Birth of Joseph. “ 

Bern places . in this century Armenia under the 
Haiganean Kings , quoting, as his authority, one of 
the French school manuals of history. It was a ne- 
cessity for him to adapt his manual to the books in 
general use in the French schools, for the convenience 
of which he prepared his charts. But in this country, 
no book of history is general in the schools ; and the 
author of this manual, therefore, has taken pains to 
make this the standard, by casting out of the repro- 
duction every date which is not verified beyond dis- 
pute. The only exception made is with respect to the 
Hebrew history. There is dispute about the absolute 
dates in all the period prior to David ; but the Scrip- 
tures give a continuous story, and the events must be 
represented in the Charts. The dates are sufficiently 
exact for common practical purposes, and right with 
relation to each other. The dispute is as to the period 
of time that the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, 
and the periods of the several judges. 

Some light may be expected on the early history 
of Armenia from the researches of Layard, who has 
restored to us Nineveh. 

Henne believes that the white races originated in 
Europe in two great branches ; to the one belonged 
the Pelasgians, to the other the Hellenes ; that the 
Pelasgians inhabited the great valley between the Alps 
and the Atlas Mountains, part of which is now the 
Mediterranean Sea ; and that, on the decline of this 
race, the superior one from the north swept over the 
Alps down the Asiatic plain even to Java. 


2194 

2129 

2119 

2118 

2117 

2116 

2115 

2114 

2113 


22 21st CENTURY B. C. 


2096 

7 

Birth of Benjamin. 

A. 

2086 

9 

Death of Isaac. 


2076 


Jacob removes into Egypt with all his fam- 
ily, consisting of sixty persons. 

2003 

9 

Death oi Joseph. 



Bern puts into this century the expulsion of the 
Shepherd Kings from Egypt, before the death of Jo- 
seph. But Bunsen thinks that the expulsion of the 
Shepherd Kings preceded only a little the exodus of 
the Israelites from Egypt ; and there is an expression 
in the Hebrew record which is a collateral evidence 
to the correctness of his judgment, — where it says, 
“ There arose a Pharaoh in Egypt who knew not 
Joseph.” 

The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were Arabian and 
Phoenician. They had governed in Egypt since before 
Abraham ; and it was easy for the Hebrews to com- 
municate with them, inasmuch as they were of kindred 
stock with the people among whom Abraham had set- 
tled, and he probably understood their language. When 
the Hyksos were driven out of Egypt, the Israelites 
began to be oppressed. 

The 18th dynasty of Manetho, according to Euse- 
bius, comprises fourteen rulers : Amasis, 25 years ; 
Chebron, 13 ; Amenophis, 21 ; Memphres, 12 ; Mis- 
phatumosis, 25 ; Thutmosis, 9 ; Amenophis (the Mem- 
non), 31 ; Orus, 28 ; Achencheris (under whom was 
the departure of Moses), 16 ; Acherres, 8 ; Cherres, 15 ; 
Armais (the Danaus who went to Argos), 5 ; Rameses 
(Egyptus, the brother of Danaus), 68 ; and Ameno- 
phis III., 40 years. 

It is curious to compare the various views taken of 
the dynasties of Manetho. Henne’s speculation is 
peculiar, namely, that Manetho collected the dynasties 
of all nations ; and that Menes is the same as Manas , 
Mannas , Mceon , Mena, , and Adam. All these names 
have the same significance, and he thinks they point 
to the first race of civilized men. 


20th CENTURY B. C. 


23 


In this century Beni places the end of the dominion 
of the Arabs over Babylon ; an incorporation of the 
kingdoms of Nineveh and Babylon under Belus, and 
the extension of the Assyrian kingdom, from the Don, 
in Europe, to the Indus, and from the Indus to the 
Nile, by means of the conquests of Ninus and Semira- 
mis. And Herodotus mentions only these names among 
the sovereigns of the old empire of Babylon. 

Bern also places in this century the building of the 
Pyramids, and the formation of Lake Moeris by a king 
of Egypt of that name ; also the Pelasgian civiliza- 
tion of Greece, founded by Phoroneus, son of Inachus, 
who named from himself the capital afterwards called 
Argos. He says they made Sicyon — which was reputed 
the oldest city of Greece — and Corinth obey them. 


IDtli CENTURY B. C. 


In the first year of this century Bern says, that the 
Pelasgians founded Megara, and in 1880, Laconia ; a 
brother of Phoronicus, Sparton, building Sparta. They 
also gave the name of Pelasgia to the countries after- 
wards called Thessaly (Haemonia) and Epirus. Thes- 
saly afterwards was divided into three provinces — 
Pelasgiotis, Phthiotis, and Achrna ; and Epirus into 
Thesprotia and Chaonia. The Pelasgians governed 
Boeotia, and Ogyges is reputed first king of Thebes. 
He conquered Attica and founded Eleusis. A son of 
Phoroneus conquered Arcadia ; Elat us and Phocus 
divided the government of Phocis, and founded Elatea ; 
and a colony of Pelasgians went to the Island of Les- 
bos. In this century occurred an earthquake and a 
deluge in Boeotia and Attica, called the Ogygian. 

But how doubtful all these dates are, a perusal of 
Henne’s History will make manifest. He believes the 
deluge of Ogyges, of Deucalion, and of Noah’s times 
to have been the same one, and that it produced the 
Mediterranean Sea. ,/ 


24 


18th CENTURY B. C. 


1725 7 


Birth of Moses. 


In this century, according to the “ Art of verifying 
Dates,” occurred the persecution of the Israelites ; 
and, according to Heeren, it was by a king of the 
18th dynasty named Thutmosis, who, as Bunsen sup- 
poses, was the very same that drove the Shepherd 
Kings from Egypt. The 18th dynasty commenced 
the new empire in Egypt ; and from the beginning of 
it, for about a thousand years, was the splendid era of 
Egypt, during which were adorned the most magnifi- 
cent monuments in honor of Rameses the Great, sup- 
posed by many to be the renowned Sesostris, though 
some critics place this hero of the Greeks in the old 
empire. 

“ Egyptian history,” says Bunsen, “ subdivides itself 
into three comprehensive periods — the old empire of 
Menes ; the middle empire of the Hyksos, or Shepherd 
Kings, who reigned at Memphis ; and the new empire, 
from the 18th dynasty, which expelled the Hyksos. 
This threefold division is established by the monu- 
ments, even by those of the 18th dynasty alone ; also 
by the authority of Manetho.” 

Of Manetho, Bunsen says, “ Under the first Ptolemies, 
he opened up to the Greeks the treasures of Egyptian 
antiquity, civil and religious. He is a purely histori- 
cal personage, concerning whom the notices transmitted 
by Greek and Latin writers are no way contradictory. 
None of the later native historians can be compared 
with him.” “ He must have possessed or given a 
chronological canon or key in his work, that is lost.” 
“ His historical work comprised a period of 3555 years, 
from Menes to Alexander ; but the sums of the reigns 
of individual dynasties make up considerably more 
than 3555 years ; consequently they were not all con- 
secutive, but must, some of them, have been contem- 
porary.” 

If Henne’s views are true, a great many difficulties 
are cleared up immediately. 


Hth CENTURY B. C. 


25 


1645 

1643 


1635 

1630 


5 

8 

5 


Moses delivers the Israelites. 

Cecrops founds Athens (Cecropia); in- 
troduces Egyptian civilization, and insti- 
tutes the Areopagus. (Blue and brown.) 
!>eucaIioa& founds Lycoria and heads the 
Leleges and Curetes (Locrians and iEtoft- 
ans), and makes war on the Pelasgians, 
taking possession of Phthiotis. (Deep blue. ) 


The Pelasgians of this century, according to Bern, 
founded the kingdom of Messenia ; Polychaon, son 
of Lelex, king of Sparta, and Messene, daughter of 
Triopas, building Andamia and other cities. The 
Pelasgians also, under the conduct of (Enotrus and 
Peucetius, founded a colony in Latium. 

In the last part of the century Moses dies ; and 
Joshua commences the conquest of Canaan by taking 
Jericho. 

The traditions make Deucalion descend from Japhet 
and Prometheus, whose dominion was placed in the 
vicinity of Caucasus. But all these names are too 
much wrapped in mythology to have dates affixed to 
them. “ There is a particular tendency,” says K. O. 
Muller, “ which may be traced throughout all the 
accounts that have come down to us of early Grecian- 
history, viz., of reducing every thing to a genealogical 
form. This tendency is manifestly founded on the 
genuine ancient language of mythology. With the 
inventors of these fabulous narratives, nations, cities, 
mountains, rivers, and gods, become real persons, who 
stood to one another in the relation of human beings, 
were arranged in families, and joined to one another in 
marriage.” The meaning of the connections may be 
readily deciphered. It is evident that the famous 
genealogy of the chief races of the Greeks, in Hesiod, 
was intended to represent that the Prometheudae, 
Deucalionidae, Hellenes, were one nation ; but Henne 
shows that it is very questionable whether these races 
came from Asia into Europe, according to the common 
idea. 


26 l«i!i CENTURY B. C. 


1600 

1597 

1580 

1554 




5 

? 


Palestine conquered by Joshua, 

and divided among the twelve tribes of 
Israel. A. 

19eatli ol* Joshua, who leaves the gov- 
ernment to the elders of the several tribes. 
Othniel, first judge, delivers a portion 
of the Israelites from the king of Mesopo- 
tamia, who had subjugated them. 


Two kings of Athens are said to have lived in this 
century — Cranaus and Amphictyon ; but Arnphictyon 
is by some called a king of Locris. His name is im- 
mortalized by the council he instituted at Thermopy- 
lae, of deputies from all the Greeks. 

Cadmus, the Phoenician, is said to have become king 
of Thebes in. this century, and to have introduced the 
worship of Bacchus ; but it is doubted whether this 
worship was known in Greece so early. Homer does 
not name Bacchus. He never appears on Olympus. 
A colony of Egyptians is said to have settled in Megara, 
and Danaus to have become king of Argos. A colony 
of Thracians is in Greece at this era, with Linus and 
Amphion, the earliest poet and musician. It was the 
age of Deucalion’s deluge. The Deucalionidae became 
Hellenes. 

Midas and Gordius are said to have reigned in Phry- 
gia, whose origin is in unremembered antiquity. The 
kingdom of Troy is founded by Dardanus, and the 
city built by his grandson Tros. The Trojans seem 
to have been Phrygians. The history of Troy is 
given by Homer in the Iliad, book XX. Some date 
in this century Maeon, the first king of Moeonia, after- 
wards called Lydia, from Lydus, another king of the 
race Atyades. Another king, Manes, founds Manesium. 

The Phoenicians colonized Utica in this century. 
This last date, however, rests on much better authority 
than the stories about Midas, Deucalion, Maeon, and 
Manes, which are all involved in mythology by the 
creative genius of the Greeks. 


15 til CENTURY B. C. 


27 


1500| | Minos, liasi;? oF Crete, spreads the Cre- 

tan civilization in Greece ; and the Pelasgians seem to 
he driven out, or incorporated with themselves, by 
Dorians, iEolians, Achaeans, and Ionians ; and the city 
of Cyrene is founded in Africa by a Dorian colony. 
See K. O. Muller’s History of the Dorians, concerning 
these things. His researches into the antiquities of 
the Hellenic races are profound, and leave little to be 
desired. No people, of whom we know any thing, 
have been so highly gifted in organization, and shown 
so pure an intellectual and aesthetic cultivation as the 
Dorians ; and they deserve the most careful study. 
K. O. Muller devoted himself to the inquiry ; and, to 
the poetic mind, it seems as if Apollo rewarded his 
votary with an appropriate consecration, when we 
learn that the historian of the Dorians died in Greece 
by a stroke of the sun, and was buried at Delphi. 
(Paint the whole square deep blue.) 

Bern places in this century Perseus, king of Argos, 
who built Mycene, and took the title of king of My- 
cene and Argos. 

He also makes this century the era of Janus, the 
first known king of Latium. 

Bern also places in this century the irruption into 
Italy of an Iberian (Spanish) tribe of Sicanians, into 
which, the century before, broke the Siculi, Liburni, 
Yenetes, and Dalmatii, Slavonic races. Compare the 
names of places in Livonia, a Slavonic country on the 
Baltic Sea, and the names in Latium. So many coin- 
cidences could hardly be accidental. Latium, Lettonia ; 
Lavinia, Livonia ; Cures, Cour-land, &c. 

There are other indications in the Latin language 
of the communion of the progenitors of the Slavo- 
nians and Latins. But philology has not yet been 
made all the use of for the solving of historical prob- 
lems, which it is to be expected that it will be, when 
its principles have been fully developed and diffused. 
Hitherto etymology has led more persons astray than 
it has aided. 


28 


14Cta CENTURY B. C. 


1400j I The Heroic Age, both in Palestine and 
Greece. In Palestine were Barak and Deborah , Gideon 
and Abimelech. In Greece were Hercules , Theseus , and 
Jason ; Orpheus , Musceus , Chiron , and JEsculapius. 
The Argonautic expedition takes place. Evander , the 
Arcadian, leads Pelasgians into Latium, and colonizes 
Mt. Palatine. The Pelasgians, driven from JET isticeotis, 
establish themselves on Mt. Pidnus, and found Macedon. 
C E dipus leaves Thebes to his twin sons, Eteocles and 
Polynices , from whose jealousy arises the War of the 
Seven Chiefs. The Isthmian and Nemaean games are 
founded. In 1380, Bern says Pelops, the Phrygian, 
son of Tantalus, brought a colony of Lydians and 
Phrygians into Phthiotis. He afterwards went to Elis, 
married the daughter of the king of Elis, became pos- 
sessed of Elis and Laconia, founding Leuctra and other 
cities. He brought the riches and civilization of Asia 
Minor with him, and from himself named the Pelo- 
ponnesus. It has been said, and repeated for ages, that 
the Pelopidae drove the children of Hercules from 
Peloponnesus, and that they took refuge among the 
Dorians ; but K. O. Muller has proved that the Herac- 
leidae were a race which had nothing to do with Her- 
cules, the Achaean. The exploits of this hero, the 
history of the Dorian tribe Heracleidae, and the Phoe- 
nician wanderings under the patronage of the god 
Harcles (the sun), have been confounded together in 
mythological history. See Bryant’s Ancient Mythology, 
and K. O. Muller’s History of the Dorians, for much 
curious information upon this subject. 

Bryant brings very important arguments to prove 
that the name of almost every hero and god of anti- 
quity stands for the name of a nation or tribe, and that 
the exploits of said hero, or the life of said god, is the 
history of the nation or tribe. He dwells a good deal 
upon the wanderings of the Heracleidae especially. 
Muller believes also in a race of Heracleidae ; but he 
seems to allow that there was a Hercules besides, — an 
Achaean hero. 


13tHl CENTURY B. C. 


29 


1293 

1270 

1245 

1220 


Theseus is deposed, and lYInestheus be- 
comes sixth king of Athens. (Blue.) 
Taking of Troy. (Blue.) 

Jephtliah, judge m Israel. (Orange.) 
Q f Ruth marries Boaz (ancestors of David). 


Plutarch’s life of Theseus gathers all the traditions 
that had accumulated concerning him for fifteen cen- 
turies. But Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are the best 
books to read concerning these times, and of the cen- 
tury before. He is said to have lived two or three 
centuries afterwards, but he is the 'author nearest the 
period. We hear, in this century, of the Heracleidae 
in Rhodes, under Ttepolemus ; in Thessaly, under 
Phidippus ; in Lydia, superseding the Atyades ; of 
Pyrrhus or Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, founding the 
kingdom of Epirus ; of the iEolians founding the city 
of Pisa in Italy ; also of the Trojan colonies, after the 
taking of Troy, viz. : Antenor, in the country of the 
Henetes or Venetes, at the head of the Adriatic Sea ; 
Teucer in Salamis (Cyprus) ; iEneas in Latium. 

Bern also says that the Phoenicians colonized Car- 
thage in this century ; but Dido is-placed as late as the 
9th century, which agrees with Tyrian history. She 
merely enlarged an old colony. The story in Virgil 
is, of course, of no value in a chronological point of 
view. It is allowed to poets and artists to make 
anachronisms of this kind. 

For the early traditions respecting the peopling and 
colonization of Italy, the student should consult the 
first part of Niebuhr’s first volume of Roman History. 
He is the prince of historical critics, and has founded 
a new era in historical science. 

A perusal of the result of his researches will give a 
realizing sense of the extreme absurdity of giving 
special date to the foundation of any old Italian cities. 
All we can learn is, that one civilization succeeded 
another, each apparently displacing its predecessor by 


violence. 


3 * 


30 


1 2th CENTURY B. C. 


1190 

1158 

1152 

1139 


5 

9 

8 

5 


Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus. 

Alba Longa said to be founded. (Red.) 
damson dies, and the offices of high 
priest and judge rest on Eli. 
§elf«devotion ol* Codrws, king of 
Athens. 

Medon becomes first archon for life. 


Concerning the Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus, 
the profounder student should consult K. O. Muller’s 
History of the Dorians. The Dorians were the Greeks 
of Greece. The compiler of this manual has consid- 
ered largely their history, culture, and influences upon 
the other Greek tribes, in Art. VI. of the “ ^Esthetic 
Papers,” published in Boston, in 1849. The subject 
is too important to be done justice to in any mere 
abridgment. It can be merely said here, that their 
first known location was about the roots of Mt. Olym- 
pus ; that they seem, long before the Trojan war, to 
have colonized Crete and the eastern shores of the 
Archipelago, establishing every where the worship of 
Apollo, their tutelary god ; that they came into Pelo- 
ponnesus after the Trojan war, crossing at Naupactus ; 
that they drove the iEolians from Messenia, Epidaurus, 
and Corinth, into Attica, also across the Archipelago 
into Asia Minor, and even west into Italy, where they 
founded Cuma, the parent city of Naples ; that they 
drove the Achseans into the northern part of the Pel- 
oponnesus, from Laconia and Argolis, driving thence 
the Ionians, first into Attica, and afterwards across the 
Archipelago, where they took the lead of the Grecian 
colonies, and founded a colony and a congress at Pa- 
nionium. 

Henne’s views are different from Muller’s, but 
not inconsistent with Muller’s facts ; on the contrary, 
he throws light upon them. Henne thinks the war 
songs of which the Iliad was compiled, began to be 
composed at this time. The new race sang a requiem 
over the dying races. 


lltll CENTURY B. C. 


31 


1092 

1089 

1080 

1070 

1054 

1042 

1040 

1033 

1032 

1030 


^1028 


1012 

1001 


5 

5 

5 

5 

6 
9 
5 
1 
5 

1 


2 

5 



Samuel, high priest and judge of Israel. 

|Abibal, first known king of Tyre. 

Saul first king* of Israel. 

Rohab, first known king of Syrian Sobah. — 

David secretly anointed king of Israel. 

Death of Samuel, aged 98. 

David proclaimed king of Judah, whence 
arises war with Ishbosheth, son of Saul. 

©avid recognized king of all Israel, on the 
assassination of Ishbosheth. 

David conquers the site of Jerusalem, and 
makes it his capital., , 

David conquers Sobah, but invests Rezom 
with the kingdom of Damascus, and rec- 
ognizes Tholmai as king of Gessur. 

David conquers Idumea and the Ammon- 
ites, and extends his kingdom from the 
Mediterranean to the Euphrates. 

Revolt of Absalom. 

Death of David, and 

Solomon ascends the throne. 


The origin of Tyre was from Sidon, whence fled 
some rich inhabitants (because it was besieged by the 
king of Ascalon). They carried to Tyre their knowl- 
edge of arts. Homer does not mention Tyre, when 
enumerating the cities of Phoenicia, but he mentions 
Sidon. Tyre soon surpassed its parent city in riches 
and arts. For a history of Tyre till it was conquered 
by Alexander the Great, see the “ Art of verifying 
Dates.” It is not said in what year Hiram ascended 
the throne ; but he was in alliance both with David 
and Solomon. (The color of the Phoenicians is black ; 
of the Syrian kingdoms, a purplish rose color.) Besides 
the Syrian kingdoms mentioned by dates, there was a 
kingdom of Emesus in Syria, in David’s time, of which 
Tohi was the first known king. 

David and Solomon represent the culminating point 
of Hebrew genius, as well as of political power. 


32 


10th CENTURY B. C. 


991 

6 

Dedication of Solomon’s temple. 

977 

6 

Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. 

962 

5 

Schism of the ten tribes. Rehoboam 
becomes king of Judah, and Jeroboam of 
Israel. 

960 

5 

Hezion, king of Damascus.. - 

958 

5 

Shishak, king of Egypt. 

946 

5 

Abijam, king of Judah. 

945 

5 

Labremon, king of Damascus. 

944 

5 

Asa, king of Judah. 

942 

5 

Nadab and Baaza, kings of Israel. 

933 

1 

Zarah, king of Ethiopia. 

926 

5 

Benhadad I., king of Damascus. 

919 

5 

Elah, Zamri, Amri, and Thebni, kings of 
Israel. 

914 

6 

Amri makes Samaria (Shechem) his capital. 

908. 

5 

Ithobal (father of Jezebel), 7th king of 
Tyre. 

907 

5 

Ahab, king of Israel. 

904 

5 

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. 


In the painting, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah 
may be discriminated by Israel’s being of a pale orange. 

In this century is the earliest mention that has come 
down to us of Ethiopia, except the incidental allusions 
of Homer. Sheba and Sabeea are essentially the same 
names. That there were queens regnant in Ethiopia, 
though not in Egypt, appears plain from the Ethiopian 
monuments described by Heeren in his first volume 
of Researches in Africa. Heeren’s work on Ethio- 
pia is very rich, and is praised highly by Bunsen, who 
intimates, however, some differences of opinion respect- 
ing points. The civilization of Ethiopia was parent 
to the Egyptian. Sometimes Ethiopia conquered 
Egypt, and the sway of Egyptian kings sometimes 
spread into Ethiopia ; but it retained its independence 
for centuries after Egypt was a province ; indeed, it 
was never conquered. Compare Heeren’s Ethiopia, 
1st vol. of African Researches, with Henne’s 1st vol. 


9th CENTURY 13. C. 


33 


900 

5 

Benhadad II., king of Damascus: 

898 

5 

Lycurgus, king and reformer of Sparta. 

888 

5 

Ahaziah, king of Israel. 

887 

5 

Joram, king of Judah. 

Joram, king of Israel. 

886 

5 

879 

JL 

■ Pygmalion, king of Tyre. 

878 

5 

Idumeans become independent. 

877 

5 

Ahaziah, king of Judah. 

876 

5 

Hazael, king of Damascus. 

875 

5 

Jehu, king of Israel. 

872 

5 

Jehoahaz, king of Israel. 

870 

5 

Joash, king of Judah. 

860 

5 

5 

Dido founds Carthage, or enlarges it, flying 
from Pygmalion, king of Tyre. 

850 

5 

Jarbas first-mentioned king of Numidia. 

848 

5 

Joash, king of Israel. 

833 

5 

Benhadad III., king of Damascus. 

831 

5 

Amaziah, king of Judah. 

817 

5 

Jeroboam II., king of Israel. 

815 

8 

Siuen Wang, emperor of China, honors ag- 
riculture by ploughing in person, and makes 
this a ceremony of the Chinese kings. 

803 

5 

Uzziah, king of Judah. 


Elijah and Elisha, Micah, Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah, 
flourished in this century ; and Bern places Homer and 
Hesiod in this century also ; and it is the era when 
Lycurgus is said to have reformed Sparta ; and Iphitus, 
king of Elis, to have reinstituted the Olympic games. 
But there are difficulties in affixing these dates. Homer 
seems to have known nothing of the invasion of the 
Dorians, or of the Olympic games; and would. seem, 
therefore, to have lived earlier — as early as the 12th 
century. Compare Mitford’s Greece and K. O. Muller’s 
Dorians. Hesiod was a Dorian, born in Bceotia ; and 
there was a tradition that he contended for the prize 
of poetry with Homer at one of the Greek festivals, 
and won it ! Henne supposes Homeric songs began 
as early as the 12th century, which perhaps were 
arranged into the Iliad in the 9th. 


34 

796 

776 

767 

766 

765 

759. 

755 

754 

753 

752 

748 

747 

744 

742 

739 

737 

735 

733 

732 

726 

724 

723 

721 

718 

715 

714 

713 

712 

710 

708 

707 


8th CENTURY B. C. 


Caranus, first Heracleid king of Macedonia. 
First Olympiad begins. (Blue.) M. 

Zachariah, king of Israel. 

Menahem, king of Israel. 

Razin, last king of Damascus. 

Old Babylon divided between 
Belesis, of Babylon, Pul, of As- 
syria, 

Arbaces, of ifledia, who all revolt from 
Sardanapalus, who kills himself. 

Pekaiah, king of Israel. 

Charops, first decennial archon of Athens. 
Pekah, king of Israel. 

Jotham, king of Judah. 

Foundation of Rome. Romulus. 
Aafoonassar, king of Babylon. 

Tatius and Romulus, kings of Rome. 
Tiglafl) Pileser, 2d king of Nineveh. 
Tatius assassinated at Rome. 

Ahaz, king of Judah. 

Candaules, last Heracleid king of Lydia. 
gTiglath Pileser conquers Syrian Gessur. 
|l>ejoces elected king of Media. 

Tiglath Pileser conquers Damascus. 

Hosea, 18th and last king of Israel. 
Salm'aneser, 3d king of Nineveh. 

Hezekiah, 14th king of Judah. 

Merodach Baladan, 7th king of Babylon. 
Ten Tribes carried captive by Salmane- 
ser. 

Beafh and Apotheosis of Romulus. 
Alima Pompilins elected king of Rome. 
Sethos, priest of Vulcan, king of Egypt. 
Sennacherib, 4th king of Nineveh^ 

He conquers the Syrian Emesus. 

War between Sennacherib and Sethos. 
Sennacherib ravages Egypt. 

Gyges, first of the Mermnad kings of Lydia. 
Esarhaddon, 5th king of Nineveh. 


■nit CENTURY B. C. 


35 


694 

692 

690 

684 

680 

671 

670 

667 


658 

656 

655 

648 

647 

644 


i 


Manasseh, 15th king of Judah. 

Messimordarchus, 12th king of Babylon. 

FhraoHes, third king of Media. 

Archonship at Athens. Annual. 

Esarhaddon unites Babylon to his kingdom, 
having conquered Messimordarchus. 

Tull us Mostilius elected 3d king of 
Rome. 

Ardys succeeds Gyges, in Lydia. (Blue 
Green.) 

Rome conquers Alba Longa. (2.) Horatii and 
Curiatii. 

Nebuchadnezzar succeeds Esarhaddon. 

Holofernes, his general, killed by Judith. 

PSAMMETICHUS BECOMES KlNG OF ALL EGYPT. 

Cyaxares I., 4th king of Media. 

Scythians invade Media, and threaten 
Egypt. 

8arac succeeds Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria. 

Nafoopolassar becomes king of Elab- 
yfioas, having driven away its Assyrian 


640 

639 

638 

625 

624 

621 

620 

617 

614 

610 

609 

608 

606 


governor. 

Amon, 16th king of Judah. 

Ab&cus Martins elected 4th king of Rome. 

Josiah, 17th king of Judah. 

Nabopolassar and Cyaxares destroy Nineveh, 
and Sarac kills himself. End of Assyria. 

©raco, archon and lawgiver of Athens. 

.^adyattes succeeds Ardys in Lydia. 

^Scythians driven from Media by Cyaxares. 

’Nechao succeeds Psammetichus in Egypt. 

Tarquin the Elder elected king of Rome. 

Alyattes succeeds Sadyattes in Lydia. 

Jehoahaz succeeds Josiah, his father ; but 

Nechao of Egypt makes Joachim supersede 
Jehoahaz. 

Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon takes Joachim, 
and the Captivity of the Jews in Babylon 
begins. 


36 


Vtli CENTURY B. C. 


605 

601 5 
2 


Nebuchadnezzar succeeds to Nabopolassar, 
and beats Nechao, both in Egypt and As- 
syria. 

Psammis succeeds Nechao in Egypt. 
Nebuchadnezzar lays waste Judea and Egypt. 


6tli CENTURY B. C. 


597 

595 

593 

588 

587 

578 

572 

571 

570 

562 

561 

560 

559 

555 

554 

551 

548 


538 


5 

5 

5 

2 

4 

9 

5 
1 
5 

1 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

2 


Zedekiah made king of Judah by Nebu- 
chadnezzar. 

Apries, (Pharaoh Hophra,) king of Egypt. 

Jlstyages, king of Media. 

feolosi, archon, legislates at Athens. (8.) 

Tarquin adds to Rome 12 Etruscan states. 

End of kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem de- 
stroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. 

Tarquin assassinated by sons of Ancus. 

Serving Tullius elected king of Rome. 

Old Tyre destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. 

New Tyre originated by refugees. 

Revolt of Etruscans against Servius Tullius. 

Amasis proclaimed king of Egypt. 

EviBEwerodach succeeds Nebuchadnezzar. 

Pisistratus becomes tyrant of Athens. 

IVeriglissor usurps Evilmerodach’s throne. 

Croesus succeeds Alyattes in Lydia. 

Laborosoarchod succeeds Neriglissor. 

Labynitus (Belshazzar) succeeds Laboroso- 
archod. 

Alliance of Etruria and Rome ends twenty 
years’ war. 

Battle of Tliimbrae, gained over Croesus 
by Cyrus, Cyaxares and Labynitus, cuds 
LycSta. 

Cyrus and Cyaxares take Babylon, conquer 
Assyria and Syria, and Jewish Captivity 

ENDS. 


6th CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


37 


536 

535 

534 


530 

526 

522 


V"5 16 
514 


510 


509 


508 


507 

504 


500 
/ 496 
495 


494 

493 

491 

490 


7 isy 

End of Media, by death of Cyaxares II. (9.) 

Rome is made head of the Latin league. 

Tar quin the Proud becomes king of 
Rome, 

Servius Tullius being assassinated. 

Death of Cyrus. (5.) Cambyses succeeds, 
and goes to Egypt, conquers Psammeni- 
tus, attempts Ethiopia, &c. 

Smcrdis the Magian, and Darius in Per- 
sia. 

Dedication of the 2d temple of Jerusalem. 

Darius conquers the Thracians. 

Hipparchus murdered. 

Republic of Athens reestablished. Os- 
tracism. 

Royalty abolished in Rome. First consul- 
ship. 

Treaty between Carthage and Rome. Brutus’s 
heroism. (8.) 

Darius conquers India. 

Death of Brutus. Heroism of Horatius 
Codes. 

Porsenna before Rome. Mutius Scsevola. 
Cloelia. 

Asiatic Greeks revolt from Persia. Sardis 
burnt. 


5th CENTURY B. C. 


Pythagoras of Samos dies in Italy. 

Great Persian war. Mardonius’s first fleet lost. 
Battle of Lake Regillus. Dictatorship estab- 
lished on this occasion, and Tarquins de- 
stroyed utterly. 

Datis and Artaphernes ravage Euboea, &c. 
Tribunes of the people established at 
Rome. 

Coriolanus banished from Rome. 

Battle of Marathon. Athenians conquer. 
4 


38 


5th CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


486 

485 


484 

483 

480 


479 


477 


472 


470 

469 

467 

463 

460 

457 

455 

454 

451 


456 ( 9 


44&|< 


446 

444 

443 


Spurius Cassius proposes Agrarian law at 
Rome. 

Xerxes I. succeeds Darius, king of Persia. 

Miltiades dies in prison at Athens, and Spu- 
rius Cassius is thrown from Tarpeian rock. 

Herodotus is bom at Halicarnassus. 

Aristides banished by ostracism from Athens. 

Expedition of Xerxes into Greece. Glory 
of Leonidas at Thermopylae. Eury- 
biades repulses the Persian fleet at Arte- 
misium. Battle of Salamis. 

Xerxes retreats into Asia. 

Greeks gain battles of Plataea and Myc- 
ale $ the Asiatic Greeks become inde- 
pendent. 

€orafuciu$ dies in China. 

Ciinoii and Aristides take the lead In 
Greece. 

Devotion and death of the 300 Fabii. 

Xerxes assassinated by Artabanus. 

Artaxerxes LoBigianamis becomes king. 

Themistocles banished from Athens. 

Battle of Eurymedon ends the Persian war. 

Pausanias, king of Sparta, dies a traitor. 

Aristides dies. Buried at public expense. 

Inarus proclaimed king of Egypt. 

Hippocrates, father of medicine, born at Cos. 

Cincinnatus, dictator at Rome. 

Battle of Tanagra, between Sparta and 
Athens. 

Nehemiah builds the walls of Jerusalem. 

Ifcecemviratc established at Rome. 

Themistocles commits suicide in Persia. 

Law of the 12 tables established at Rome. 

Virginia’s death. (5.) Decemvirate abolished. 

Cimon dictates terms of peace to Persia. 

Pericles rules the republic at Athens. 

Military tribuneship established at Rome. 

Censorship established at Rome. 


5tli CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


39 


6 

2 

9 

1 

2 

2 

2 

3 

5 

9 

5 
9 

6 

2 

9 

6 

8 

6 

2 

1 

1 

1 

2 

8 

8 

2 


6 

5 

1 

2 

9 


Temple built on Mt. Gerazim, by Sanbastan. 
PcSoponaicsian war begins. 

Athens takes Potideea, after 3 years’ siege. 

Death of Pericles by plague. 

Lacedemonians besiege and destroy Plataea. 

Athenians take Mitylene of Lesbos. 

Demosthenes victorious over Spartans. 

Athenians take the Island of Cythera. 

Brasidas conquers Athenians in Thrace. 

Xerxes II. succeeds Artaxerxes Longimanus. 

Xerxes II. assassinated by Sogdianus. 

Dcirius T¥olluis, king of Persia. 

Sogdianus is put to death. 

Treaty between Sparta and Athens kept one 
year. 

Spartans conquer Athenians at Amphipolis ; 

Athenian Cleon and Spartan Brasidas fall. 

Nicias makes 50 years’ truce, (kept 6 years.) 

Ostracism abolished because of Hyperbolus. 

Alcibiades’ league of Greeks against Sparta. 

They take Orchomenos, and besiege Te- 
gaea. 

Spartans gain the battle of Mantinea. 

Unfortunate expedition of Athenians to Sicily. 

Confederation against Athens, made by Alci- 
biades, in his exile. 

Athenians recall Alcibiades, and make him 
general. 

Cyrus the Younger gives means to the Spar- 
tans, to carry on the war. 

Battle of JEgos Potamos, gained by Spartans. 

Artaxerxes ftfnemon, king of Persia. 

Lysander of Sparta takes Athens, ends the 
Peloponnesian war, and establishes the 
Thirty Tyrants. 

Thrasybulus deposes the Thirty, and estab- 
lishes the Ten, in Athens. 

Revolt of Cyrus the Younger. Battle of 
Cunaxa. Death of Cyrus the Younger. 
Retreat of the Ten Thousand. 


40 


4tSi CENTURY B. C. 


399 

396 

395 

394 


391 

390 

389 

388 

382 

378 

376 

375 

371 

367 


366 


365 


363 


362 


360 


§oca*afes dies by hemlock, at Athens. 
Agesilaiis subjects Asia Minor, threatens 
Persia. 

Nephereus, king of Egypt. 

Agesilaus gains battle of Chos’osiea 

over the league formed against Sparta ; but 
Conon gains the naval battle of Cnidos. 

Ca mil lus banished from Rome. 
Thucydides, the historian, dies in Greece. 
Rome taken by the Gauls. 

Achoris, king of Egypt. 

Peace of Antalcidas dictated by Persia. 
Thebes loses its independence, by Spartans. 
Felopidas asid Epasnmosadas restore 
it. 

Psammuthis and Nephero, kings of Egypt. 
Nectanabis I., king of Egypt. 

ISattlc of Letidra gained by Thebans. 
Thebes takes the lead in Greece. 

Camillus repels second invasion of Gauls. 
Pelopidas in Macedonia, delivered by Epam- 
inondas, from imprisonment. 

Thebes makes alliance with Artaxerxes M. 
Epatninondas conquers Achaia. (2.) 
Praetorship established for patricians, but 
consulship and edileship shared by the two 
orders at Rome. 

Expedition and death of Pelopidas in 

Thessaly. 

Camillus second founder of Rome, dies. 
Battle of Mantinea. Ppaminomlas 

falls. 

Heroic self-devotion of Martins Curtails. 
Tachos and Nectanabis IT., of Egypt. 
Heroism of Titus Manlius Torqiiatus. 
©chits succeeds Artaxerxes Mnemon. 
Agesilaiis of Sparta, dies in Egypt. 
Philip SI., first important king of Macedon, 
invents the Macedonian Phalanx. 


359 

358 

356 

355 

354 

350 

347 

345 

344 

343 

340 

339 

338 

337 

336 

335 

334 

333 

332 

~331 

327 


4t2i CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


41 


Sulpicius defeats fourth invasion of Gauls. 

Social war of two years in Greece. 

Marais Kutiliiis, first plebeian dictator. 

Sacred war against the Phocians. 

Xenophon, the historian, dies. 

Egypt reconquered by Persia. 

Last invasion of CJasils. Valerius Cor- 
VMS distinguishes himself. 

Olynthus taken by Philip II., whereupon 

Athens declares war against Macedon. 

Philip ends the social war, is admitted to 
the Amphictyonic council, and takes the 
lead in Greece. 

Phocion, Demosthenes, and iEschines, at 
Athens. 

Roman Samnite wars begin, and last 71 years. 

Roman treaty with Carthage, Tyre, and Utica. 

Heroism of Decius Mus and Manlius Tor- 
quatus. 

Censorship divided between the two orders of 
Rome. 

Sacred war against the Locrians. 

Battle of Choronaea gained by Philip. 

Arses, king of Persia, succeeds Ochus. 

Plebeians admitted to Roman prsetorship. 

Alexander the Great, king of Macedon. 

Darius Coclomanus, king of Persia. 

Alexander destroys Thebes; conciliates 
Athens. 

Hattie of* Granicus. Conquest of Asia 
Minor. 

Hattie of* Sssus. Conquest of Cselosyria. 

Conquest of Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt. 

Alexandria founded in Egypt. 

Hattie of Arbela ; conquest of Persia. (2.) 

Harius assasssEiated. End of Persia. 
(4.) 

Alexander conquers the Scythians; goes 
4 * 


42 


4t!i CENTURY — CONTINUED. 



323 
321 1 


320 

318 

315 


1 

1 

9 


311 


9 

5 


307 


305 1 
301 


to India ; makes treaty with Porus ; marries 
Koxana, a Persian lady. 

Proconsulate established at Rome. 

Alexander returns to Babylon, marries 
Statira, daughter of Darius Codomanus. 

Heath of Alexander the Great. Anarchy. 

Affair of Caudine Forks, in 3d Samnite war. 
Division of Alexander’s kingdom into four — 
Macedonia, Thrace, Egypt, Syria. 

Ptolemy Soter takes possession of Judaaa. 

Romans take Capua from the Samnite allies. 

Phocion is put to death at Athens. 

Five divisions of Alexander’s kingdom — 
Macedonia and €aria, Egypt, Bab- 
ylon, Syria. 

Seleucus makes Babylon his capital. 

Cassander murders Koxana and her son, 
and founds a new kingdom of Macedon. 

Five governors take the title of kings. 

Seleucus becomes king of Upper Asia ; 

Antigoims, of Asia Minor and Syria; 

Cassander, of Macedonia ; Ploleiny, 
of Egypt ; ILysinia clans, of Thrace. 
(Crimson, pink, neutral tint, brown, bronze 
green.) 

Seleucus goes against the Indian Sandracot- 
tus. 

Battle of Ipsus gained over Antigonus 
and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes, by Ly- 
simachus and Seleucus, who divide the 
kingdom between themselves, making but 
four great divisions — Syria, ( painted car- 
mine, for it includes Upper Asia and Baby- 
lon ,) Egypt, Macedon, and Thrace. 


N. B. This division is not permanent. Cappadocia, 
and other kingdoms, recover their independence ; but 
Greek civilization is diffused amidst all these disorders. 


278 

277 

276 

275 

274 

272 

268 

265 

264 

260 

256 

251 


3d CENTURY B. C. 


43 


Philip succeeds his father Cassander. 

Antipater and Alexander succeed Philip. 

Self-devotion of Decius Mus 2d. 

Slavery for debt abolished at Rome. 

Ptolemy Soter abdicates to Ptolemy 
Pliiladelfdms. 

Seleucus vanquishes Lysimachus, and takes 
Macedon and Thrace, but is assassinated 
by Ptolemy Ceraunus, who becomes king 
of both Macedon and Thrace. 

Antiochus Soter, king of Syria. 

Pyrrhus gains battle of lleraclea, over Ro- 
mans, in sixth Samnite war. 

Gauls make conquests in Greece and Asia. 

Self-devotion of Decius Mus 3d, at Asculum. 

Meleager succeeds Ptolemy Ceraunus in Ma- 
cedonia. 

Antipater, son of Cassander, recovers Mace- 
donia. 

Septuagint version of Scriptures made. 

Antigonus Goni, son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, 
gains Macedonia. 

Romans gain battle of Beneventum 

over Pyrrhus. 

Pyrrhus, returning home, drives out Antig. 
Goni, and is proclaimed king of Macedonia. 

Antigonus Goni recovers Macedonia, when 
Pyrrhus dies in Peloponnesus, whom his son 
Alexander II. succeeds in Epirus. 

Antigonus Goni takes Athens. 

Samnite wars end. R,omans possess 
Italy to the Po. 

First Punic war begins in Sicily, where 
the Romans become predominant. 

Romans victorious in their first naval battle. 

Antiochus Theos succeeds Antiochus Soter. 

War carried into Africa by Regulus. 

Antigonus Goni takes Corinth. 

Aratus revives the Achaean league, and is 


44 


3d CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


250 


247 

‘240 


9 

hi 


243 

240 

239 

237 

236 

235 

232 

227 

225 

224 

223 

222 


221 

219 


elected strategus, though only 20 years 
old. 

Antiochus repudiates Laodice ; marries Bere- 
nice. 

Ptolemy III., her brother, succeeds Philadel- 
phus. 

Laodice poisons Berenice and Antiochus 
Theos; wherefore Ptolemy III. invades 
Syria. 

Seleucus Callinicus, king of Syria. 

Aratus destroys Macedonian power in Achaia. 

Demetrius II. succeeds Antigonus Goni. 

War of Carthage against the 80,000 merce- 
naries employed in First Punic war. 

Agis III. of Sparta divides the land, and tries 
to reestablish Lycurgns’s discipline. 

He is put to death by faction of the rich, and 
Leonidas, his colleague, reigns alone. 

Hamilcar Barca exterminates the mercenaries, 
and makes the first conquests in Spain. 

Romans make conquests in Cisalpine Gaul. 

Cleomenes III. succeeds Leonidas in Sparta. 

Antig. Doson succeeds Demetrius II., and 
conquers Boeotia, Phocis, and Thessaly. 

Asdrubal founds Carthagena, in Spain. 

Cleomenes reforms Sparta, and breaks league 
with the Achaeans, whom he vanquishes. 

Seleucus Ceraunus succeeds Callinicus. 

Aratus calls Antigonus against Cleomenes, 
who has reduced the league to extremities. 

Antigonus Doson takes Corinth. 

Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. 

Romans take Milan from Cisalpine Gauls. 

Ptolemy IY. succeeds Evergetes (Ptolemy 

mo 

Philip III. succeeds Antigonus Doson. 

Hannibal destroys Saguntum, in Spain. 

Heracleidic kings of Sparta end. 

Lycurgus, first of the tyrants. 


3d CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


45 


Second Punic war; Hannibal gains battles 
of Ticiiaum ami Trebia, 

And battle of Thrasymene, 

4.nd battle of Caiame, over the Romans. 

Great wall of China built. 

Marcellus gains three battles at Nola. 

Battle of Beneventum gained over Hannibal. 

Capua taken from Hannibal by Romans. 

Carthagena taken from Carthage by Scipio. 

Battle of Metaurus gained over Asdrubal. 

Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes) succeeds Philopater, 
(IV.) 

Antiochus the Great conquers Syria and 
Palestine. 

Battle of Zama, gained by Scipio over Han- 
nibal, ends Second Punic war. 

Hannibal head of affairs at Carthage. 


2d CENTURY B. C. 


Second Macedonian war of Rome. 

Flaminius gains battle of Cynocephale. 
Proclamation of liberty in Greece. 

Antiochus III. (the Great) makes war on 
Rome, 

And is vanquished at Thermopylae. 

Achaean league in its greatest extent. 
Antioehus gains battle of Magnesia. 
Antiochus the Great assassinated by his sub- 
jects. 

Seleucus Philopater succeeds him. 

Censorship of Cato the Elder. (8.) 
Hannibal, Scipio, and Philopcemen die. 
Ptolemy VI. (Philomater) king of Egypt. 
Persius succeeds Philip III. in Macedonia. 
Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes) succeeds Seleucus. 


46 


2d CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


172 

2 

Cisalpine Gaul conquered by the Romans. 

170 

1 

Third war of Rome on Macedonia. 

5 

Ptolemy VII. governs Egypt, because 


2 

Antiochus IV. has imprisoned Ptolemy VI. 

168 

1 

Battle of Pydna gained by Paulus Emilius 
over Macedonia. 

167 


Revolt of Matthias Maccabaeus against Syria. 

166 

5 

Judas Maccabaeus succeeds Matthias, 

164 

2 

And vanquishes the Roman Lysias. 


9 

Death of Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes.) 

162 

5 

Demetrius I. (Soter) king of Syria. 

161 

5 

Jonathan Maccabaeus succeeds Judas. 

152 

5 

The impostor Andriscus usurps Macedonian 
throne. 

149 

1 

Third Punic war. Fourth Macedonian war. 
(2.) 

Alexander Bala murders Demetrius Soter, 


9 


5 

And takes possession of his throne. 

148 


Macedonia becomes a Roman province. 

146 


Carthage destroyed by Scipio iEmilianus. 
Corinth destroyed by Mummius. 


5 

Ptolemy VII. (Physcon) king of Egypt. 
Demetrius II. (Nicator) king of Syria. 

144 

9 

Jonathan Maccabaeus massacred at Ptolemais. 


5 

Simon succeeds j completes independence of 
Judaea. 


5 

Tryphon makes Antiochus VI. king of Syria. 

142 

1 

Romans besiege Numantia, in Spain. 


2 

Simon destroys Syrian garrison at Acra. 

140 

9 

Tryphon murders Antiochus, and takes his 
place. 


5 

Demetrius Nicator king of part of Syria. 


6 

Is made prisoner by the Parthians. 

139 

6 

Antiochus VII., his brother, marries his wife. 


5 

Reigns in his stead, and vanquishes Tryphon. 

135 

5 

John Hyrcanus succeeds his father, Simon, 
who was assassinated at Jericho. 

134 

2 

Scipio Ailmilianus destroys Numantia, in Spain. 

133 

8 

Tiberius Gracchus proposes agrarian law, 


2 cl CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


47 


132 

9 

And is assassinated with 300 partisans. 

131 

8 

Cams Gracchus proposes agrarian law. 

130 

5 

Demetrius Nicator recovers all Syria. 


9 

Scipio iEmilianus found dead in his bed. 

125 

5 

Seleucus V. and Alexander Zebina reign in 



Syria. 

123 

5 

Antiochus VIII. (Gripus) succeeds Seleucus, 


9 

And puts to death Alexander Zebina. 

122 

9 

Caius Gracchus dies, with 500 partisans. 

117 

5 

Ptolemy VIII. (Lathyrus) king of Egypt. 

114 

1 

Cimbri make war on Rome. 

112 

1 

First Jugurthan war of Rome. 


5 

Antiochus IX. (Cyzicus) reigns with Gripus. 

110 

1 

Second Jugurthan war. 

109 

1 

John Hyrcanus besieges and destroys Sama- 

107 

1 

Aristobulus I. calls himself king of Judea. 

106 

6 

Ptolemy VIII. driven from Egypt by his 



mother, who reigns for Ptolemy IX. 


1 

Cimbrian victory over the Romans. 


8 

Marius and Sylla conquer Jugurtha, 


1 

And make Numidia a Roman province. 


*5 

Alexander Jannaeus becomes king of Judaea. 

105 

1 

Alexander Jannaeus besieges Ptolemais, and 

104 

1 

Loses the battle of Jordan and 30,000 men. 

103 


Marius exterminates the Teutones. 



Marius and Sylla exterminate the Cimbri. 



1st CENTURY B. C. 

97 

2 

Alexander Jannaeus conquers Gaza and other 


9 

cities, and massacres 6000 Pharisees on his 



return home, because they insulted his tri- 



umphs. 

94 

5 

Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria. The throne 


1 

is disputed 12 years, by the successors of 



Gripus and Cyzicus. 


48 1st CENTURY— CONTINUED. 


92 

1 

Revolt of Pharisees from Alexander Jannseus, 
while he is on an expedition into Arabia. 

91 

8 

Livius Drusus proposes Roman citizenship 


9 

for the Italian allies, and is assassinated. 


1 

Social war in Italy for citizenship, which is 

89 

9 

gained, after 300,000 had perished. 

88 

5 

Ptolemy Lathyrus regains his throne. 


6 

Marius, proscribed by Sylla, escapes. 


1 

Mithridates VII., of Pontus, makes war on 
Rome. 

87 

1 

Alexander Jannasus gains battle of Bethom, 


9 

And crucifies 800 Pharisees. 


5 

Marius, consul 7th time, proscribes Sylla. 

86 

1 

Sylla takes Athens from the king of 


2 

Pontus, and is victorious at Cheronsea and 
Orchomenos. 


9 

Marius dies, having been consul 17 days. 

85 

2 

Sylla vanquishes Mithridates VII. 

84 

1 

Second Mithridatic war. Pontus attacked. 

83 

1 

Sylla, victorious over Marius the Younger, 


9 

Enters Rome, massacres 7000, proscribes 5000. 


5 

Throne of Syria given to Tigranes II., king 
of Armenia, by the war-wearied Syrians. 

82 

5* 

Dictatorship of Sylla. 

81 

5 

Berenice succeeds Ptolemy VIII. in Egypt. 

80 

6 

Ptolemy X. marries and murders Berenice. 


9 

He is then massacred by the army, and 


5 

Ptolemy XI. (Auletes) is put on the throne. 


8 

Sylla abdicates the dictatorship. 

79 

5 

Alexandra is queen' of the Jews during the 
minority of her children. 


1 

First Roman war on the Pirates. 

74 

1 

Third Mithridatic war. 

73 

9 

Sertorius is assassinated in Spain, just as he 
is thinking of making himself its indepen- 
dent king. 


1 

Spartacus begins war of the Gladiators. 

71 

1 

Lucullus takes Sinope, capital of Pontus. 


1st CENTURY— CONTINUED. 


49 


Crassus conquers the Gladiators and Sparta- 
cus. 

Lucullus conquers Pontus. Pharisees elect 
Hyrcanus II. king of the Jews ; Aristobu- 
lus II. elected by the people, contests it. 

Lucullus conquers Tigranes II. in Syria, and 
Antiochus XIII. recovers his throne ; while 
Aristobulus II. becomes king of Judaea. 

First conspiracy of Catiline at Rome. 

Pompey exterminates the Pirates. 

Pompey conquers Mithridates VII., who kills 
himself in consequence ; and Pontus, Bithy- 
nia, and Paphlagonia are Roman provinces. 

Second conspiracy of Catiline. 

Aristobulus II. appeals to Pompey against 
Hyrcanus. 

But Pompey proclaims Hyrcanus king. 

Third conspiracy of Catiline. Cicero causes 
his defeat, and Catiline is killed in battle. 

Judaea, a Roman province, pays tribute. 

Aristobulus made captive ; Hyrcanus high 
priest. 

First triumvirate — Pompey, Crassus, Caesar. 

Julius Caesar’s wars in Transalpine Gaul. 

His first expedition to Great Britain. 

Crassus the Elder perishes in Parthia. 

Ptolemy XII. and Cleopatra succeed Auletes. 

Ail Gaul conquered by Julius Caesar. 

Civil war between Pompey and Caesar. 

Battle of Pharsalia gained by Caesar. 

Pompey flies to Egypt, and is assassinated. 

Caesar makes Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII. 
rulers. 

Alexandrian library burnt. 

Cato the Younger destroys himself at Utica. 

Battle of Munda ends the civil war. 

Caesar declared dictator. Julian era. 

Julius Caesar assassinated. 

Cleopatra alone, queen of Egypt. 

5 


50 1st CENTURY — CONTINUED. 


43 

5 

SccoskI triumvirate— Mark Antony, 


9 

Octavius and Lepidti§. Death of 

Cicero. 

42 


Battle of Philippi. Brutus and Cassius’s death. 

40 


Herod the Idumsean, supported by Romans, 
and Antigonus, last of the Maccabees, by 
the Parthians, dispute the throne of Judaea. 
Capture of Jerusalem. Herod becomes king, 

37 

1 


9 

. (5.) and Antigonus is put to death. 

31 

1 

Hattie of ActiuiKfi. Octavius conquers; 

30 

i 

besieges and takes Alexandria ; makes 


4 

Egypt a Roman province. 


a 

Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves. 

29 


Octavius becomes Augustus. First emperor. 

22 


Gallo-Greece (Galatia) made a Roman prov- 
ince. 

20 


Spain becomes a Roman province. 

17 

8 

Herod builds the third temple. 

15 


Pann on ia, Moesia, Rhastia conquered. (These, 
being Slavonian nations, are painted pink.) 

9 


Germany conquered to the Elbe. 

6 


Birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem. 

4 

5 

Royalty abolished. Tetrarchate instituted in 
Judaea on the death of Herod, king of the 
Jews. 


N. B. The foregoing tables, comprising the prin- 
cipal dates of the Hebrews, Babylonians, Assyrians, 
Medians, Athenians, Spartans, Macedonians, Cartha- 
ginians, and Romans, should be indicated on the Chart. 
If they are well known, there cannot be any great error 
made in the events of the twenty-five centuries before 
Christ, and it is not worth while to load the memory 
of school children with any more dates. But for the 
convenience of those students who may wish to carry 
their studies further in after life, we shall add the dates 
of some minor nations, which have had less influence 
upon the general destiny of humanity. We append 
the Chronology of Sicily first, since that island 


SICILIAN CITIES. 


61 


almost has a title to be represented in the Chart. Its 
early history is unknown. Its mythological kings 
were Cicalus, Siculus, iEolus, and his sons. It was 
early settled by Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Greek 
colonies. The known names and dates are 


B . c . LEONTIUM. 

614 Panetius. 


AGRIGENTUM. 

564 Phalaris. 
Alcamenes. 
Alcander. 

476 Theron. 

Thrasydseus. 

Democracy. 


GELA. 

503 Cleander. 

491 Hiero. 

Hippocrates. 

ZANCLE. 
494 Scythes. 


RHEGIUM. 
494 Anaxilas. 

467 Micythus. 


B. C. 

HIMERA. 
Crinippus, and 

494 

Tyrillus. 

« 

SYRACUSE. 

491 

Gelon (fromGela.) 

461 

Hiero. 

467 

Thrasybulus. 

466 

Democracy. 

456 

Deucetius. 

405 

Dionysius I. 
Dionysius II. 

358 

Dion. 

354 

Calippus. 

353 

Hipparinus. 

350 

Nypsius. 

347 

Dionysius II. 
(again.) 

340 

Timoleon. 

317 

Agathoc.les. 

Democracy. 

275 

Hiero II. 

221 

Hieronymus. 

214 

Democracy. 

213 

Made into a Ro- 
man province 
by Marcellus. 


The history of Sicily may be found in Mitford’s 
“ Greece,” Arnold’s “Rome,” Plutarch’s “Lives of 
Dion and Timoleon.” and in “ L' Art de Verifier les 
Dates," Tom. V. 


52 


GREAT AND LITTLE CAPPADOCIA. 


CAPPADOCIA. 

This was one satrapy under the Persians, but two 
kingdoms under the Macedonians. The Achasmen- 
ides, a royal Persian house, gave it kings. They 
began to reign, probably, in the remarkable year 759 
B. C. But the first known king is 


b. c. 

670 Pharnaces. 

Gamus or Galleis. 
Smerdis, brother of 
Cyrus. 

Atamnes. 
Pharnaspes. 
Anaphas, or Otanes 

I. 

Anaphas, or Otanes 

II. 

445 Datames. 

424 Antamnes II. 
Ariarathes. 
Holofernes. 

351 Ariarathes II. 


B. C. 

Ariarathes III. 
284 Arsamenes. 

Ariarathes IY. 
220 Ariarathes Y. 

166 Ariarathes YI. 
129 Ariarathes YII. 
91 Ariarathes YIII. 
91 Ariarathes IX. 

89 Ariobarzanes. 

51 Ariobarzanes II. 
42 Ariobarzanes III. 

Ariarathes X. 

35 Archelaus. 

Roman province. 


PONTUS, OR LITTLE CAPPADOCIA, 

Was erected into a separate kingdom by Darius Hys- 
taspes, who made its first king in 


b. c. 

520 Pharnaces. 

480 Artabanus. 

402 Mithridates I. 
364 Ariobarzanes. 
337 Mithridates II. 
302 Mithridates III. 
266 Mithridates IY. 
222 Mithridates Y. 


b. c. 

186 Pharnaces II. 
157 Mithridates YI. 
123 Mithridates YII. 
61 Pharnaces III. 
43 Polemon I. 

A. D. 

38 Polemon II. 


BACTRIA — ALBANIA — IBERIA. 


53 


It was made a Roman province by Vespasian ; and 
conquered by Mahomet II. from the Eastern Empire. 


BACTRIA. 

The early history of Bactria is lost with that of old 
Persia. It became an independent kingdom in 


b. c. 

256 Under Theodotes I. 
233 Theodotes II. 

221 Euthydemus. 


b. c. 

195 Menandres. 

181 Euc rat ides. 

Eucratides II., — 


In whose reign the Parthians and Scythians conquered 
and divided it ; but the Scythians governed it till they 
were dispossessed by the Huns. 


ALBANIA, 

West of the Caspian Sea, was an independent king- 
dom from time immemorial, till the reign of the Em- 
peror Justinian II. Its only kings that are known in 
history are a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and 
Orodes, a contemporary with Pompey. Zoberes, his 
son and successor, and Pharasmenes, a contemporary 
of Adrian. 


IBERIA, 

West of Albania, was independent from time imme- 
morial ; but its only known kings were, B. C. 71, Arto- 
ces, or Artocus, or Arthaces, or Arsaces, and Pharna- 
bazus, vanquished by the Romans. 

Iberia was then governed by the kings of Great Ar- 
menia. Pharasmanes was contemporary with Adrian. 
This country is now named Gurgistan. 

5* 


64 


MEDIA — PARTHIA — ARMENIA. 


MEDIA ATROPATIA. 

When Media was conquered by Alexander the 
Great, a single province resisted, defended by a valiant 
man, who founded a dynasty of kings. 


b. c. 

330 Atropates. 
169 Timarchus. 
89 Mithridates. 


B. C. 

Darius. 

36 Artuasdes, who was 
conquered by Par- 
thians. 


PARTHIA, (Purple.) 

This nation may be considered the legitimate suc- 
cessor of the Persians, having the same religion and 
despotic government. They shook off the yoke of the 
Seleucidse in the reign of Antiochus Theos. The 
first king was descended from Artaxerxes Mnemon. 


b. c. 

257 Arsaces. 

259 Tiridates. 

217 Arsaces II. 

180 Arsaces III. 
Pampatius. 

Phraates I. 

164 Mithridates I. 

139 Phraates II. 

128 Artabanus. 

125 Mithridates II. 
had sixteen kings after Ch 
Ardschir, the Persian, A. D, 


b. c. 

77 Sinatrock. 

70 Phraates III., Theos. 
61 Mithridates. 

57 Orodes. 

37 Phraates, whose re- 
lations with the 
Romans paved the 
way for Parthia’s 
being made a Ro- 
man province. It 
1st, and was conquered by 
223. 


ARMENIA. 

Armenia had been independent until Alexander’s 
time, who conquered, it is said, the last of the Haga- 
nean kings. In the reign of Antiochus the Great, they 
shook off the yoke of foreign kings, and two governors 
of different parts set up kingdoms under the names of 
Great Armenia and Little Armenia. 


ARMENIA — BITHYNIA. 


65 


B. C. 

189 


128 


95 

37 

34 

5 


Artaxias I. 

Artaxias II. , conquer- 
ed by the Sy- 
rians. 

Tigranes I., a Par- 
thian. 

Tigranes II. 

Artuasdes. 

Artaxias III. 

Tigranes III. 

Artuasdes II. 

Tigranes IY. 


the reign of the Emperor Justinian II. 


b. c. 

189 Zabriades. 

161 Mithrobusanes. 

95 Artanes. 

63 Dejotares I. 

Dejotares II., after 
whose death the kingdom 
was divided, under the 
direction of the Romans, 
to Medea, Pontus, Cappa- 
docia, &c. His successors 
were Roman vassals, till 
conquered by Saracens, in 


BITHYNIA. 

Of the forty-nine kings which occupied the throne 
of Bithynia before the Romans conquered it, we know 
only the names of Amycus, (son of Neptune,) Butes, 
Mucaporis, Mandron, Dedalsus, (contemporary of Cyrus 
the Younger,) Botiras, Bias, (undated.) 
b. c. 

320 Zipetes, who refounded the kingdom after 
Alexander. 

272 Nicomedes I., ally of the Gauls of Galatia. 

250 Zela, who had transactions with the Gauls. 

237 Prusias, who was hospitable to Hannibal. 

148 Nicomedes II. , who assassinated his father. 

90 Nicomedes III., who left his throne by his will 
to the Romans. 


THE CIMMERIAN BOSPHORUS 

Lay north of the Black Sea, including Crimea. 
These people were governed by the Archseanactides, 
so named from their first king,- but no name transpires 
in history until 


58 


CIMMERIA — COLCHIS — EPIRUS. 


B. C. 

480 Poerisades, succeeded by Leucon and Saganrus. 
439 Spartacus ; 432, Seleucus ; 428, Spartacus II. 
407 Satyrus ; 353, Leucon II. ; 349, Spartacus III. ; 
Poerisades II. 

340 Satyrus II. ; 310, Prytanes ; 309, Eumeles. 

304 Spartacus IY. ; 289, Leucanor .; then Euboites ; 
then Poerisades III., who gave his kingdom to 
Mithridates VII., king of Pontus. 

86 The people revolted, and Mithridates made 
79 Machares king ; 65, Phar/taces; 31, Asander. 

13 Scribonius ; 12, Polemon, Sauromates. 

After Christ there were twenty kings, till the middle 
of the 4th century. 


COLCHIS. 

The mythological kings of Colchis were Helius and 
iEtes. Xenophon mentions, in 401 B. C., iEtes I., who 
was succeeded by Saleuces and Eusupobis. There 
reigned B. C. 65, Orthaces, and B. C. 47, Aristarchus. 
In Trojan’s time, they voluntarily fell into the Roman 
empire. 


CHRONOLOGY OF EPIRUS. 

The kings of this country pretended to descend from 
Achilles. Pyrrhus I., or Neoptolemus, Lanassa, Molossus, 
Pylades, reigned before the time of dates. Then come 

B. C. 

480 Admetus, who was hospitable to Themistocles, 
when he was banished from Athens. 

429 Tharymbas, who was a lawgiver. 

385 Alcetes, who lost his throne and regained it. 

Neoptolemus II., who shared his throne with 
his brother. 

360 Arymbas II., maternal grandfather of Alexander 
the Great. 

342 Alexander, who made expeditions into Italy. 


EPIRUS — THRACE. 


57 


B. C. 

331 JEacides, father-in-law of Demetrius Poliorcetes. 

312 Acetes, who was massacred. 

295 Pyrrhus II., called the Great. 

272 Alexander II. 

242 Ptolemy, succeeded by Pyrrhus III. and Laoda- 
mia. (Undated.) After their death, Epirus 
became a republic ; but the country was con- 
quered by Paulus iEmilius in 168 and 167. 
It remained with the Romans until A. D. 1430, 
when Amurath II. laid it waste. It passed 
from George Castriot, in 1467, to the Venetians, 
and now belongs to the Turks as Albania. 


CHRONOLOGY OF THRACE. 


431 

Teres. 


219 

Ca varus, (a Gaul.) 

428 

Sitalces. 



Seuthes IV., (; 

424 

Seuthes. 



Thracian.) 


Moesades. 


171 

Cotys II. 


Medocus. 



Diegulis. 

390 

Amadocus. 



Zibelmius. 

376 

Teres. 



Sothymus. 

380 

Cotys I. 



Sadates. 

356 

Chersobleptus. 


57 

Cotys III. 

345 

Seuthes III. 



Sadates II. 

324 

Lysimachus. 



Sadates III. 

277 

Comont.orius, 

(a 


Cotys IV. 


Gaul.) 



Rhsemetalces. 


Ariopharnes, 

(a 




Thracian.) 





After Christ, there were a few kings of Thrace, but 
the country was subjected to the Romans by Claudius, 
A. D. 47. 

The Thraciaij Chersonese was governed by several 
kings in the time of Homer ; and in the time of Pisis- 
tratus, it was governed by Miltiades, who went to 
Thrace to assist them against some enemies. 

8 


58 


PERGAMUS — CARIA — RHODES. 


Many Thracian peoples had kings of their own: the 
Denseletes. Besses, Bistones, Odomantes, Cicones, Ed- 
ones, Bryges, Tnyanians, Pierians, Automnes, Crobyses, 
Moedes, Sapaeans, Celetes. Homer speaks of kings 
of the Cicones, viz., Pirous, Imbrasus, and Rhigmus; 
of Lycurgus, king of the Edones ; of Linus and 
Orpheus of Pieria ; Thucydides, the historian, was a 
descendant of the Sapaeans. 


CHRONOLOGY OF PERGAMUS. 


B. C. 

283 Phileres made king 
of it by Lysima- 
chus. 

263 Eumenes I. 

241 Attains I. 

197 Eumenes II. 


b. c. 

157 At talus II. 

137 Attalus III. 

132 Aristonicus con- 
quered and put 
to death by the 
Romans, in 129. 


CHRONOLOGY OF CARIA. 


520 Lygdamis I. 
480 Artemisus I. 
Pisyndelus. 
Lygdamis II. 
Hecatomnus. 


377 Mausolus. 

353 Artemisus II. 

351 Ideiaeus. 

344 Ada, after whom it 
was lost in Alex- 
ander’s kingdom. 


CHRONOLOGY OF RHODES. 

Tlepolemus, a Heracleid, went to the war of Troy. 
Dariacus, Damagetis, Diagorus, and Evagoras are kings 
undated. Then come 


b. c. 

571 Cleobulus Diagorus II. (in Pindar’s time.) 
Erast ides. 

480 Rhodes a republic. 

355 Mausolus, king of Caria, became its king. 


RHODES — AFRICA — ASIA. 


50 


B. C. 

352 Artemisia, queen of Caria, was its queen. At 
her death the Rhodians recovered their liberty. 
335 They gave themselves voluntarily to Alexander. 
324 At his death, they vindicated their liberty. 

304 They defended themselves against Demetrius P. 
224 The Colossus was thrown down by an earth- 
quake. 

165 Alliance of Rhodes and Rome. 

Yespasian made a Roman province of it, A. D. 74. 


MAURITANIA AND NUMIDIA. 

In the fabulous era of Mauritania, we have, as 
kings, the names of Ammon, Sheshak, Neptune, and 
Atlas; in the time of Jugurtha, Bocchus I. In Nil- 
lll id la, we have a King Jarbas, in Dido’s time ; 
Narva, in Hannibal’s time ; in the third century, 
Syphax, Vermina, Aribason, Gala, Cupusa, Asalces, 
Mesetules, and Masinissa. The latter lived in the 
second century, until B. C. 148. Micipsa lived until 
B. C. 122, and left two sons, Adherbal and Hiemp- 
sal, and a nephew, Jugurtha. Hiempsal was mur- 
dered by Jugurtha, and then he and Adherbal dis- 
puted for the throne. The Romans interfered, and 
Numidia was made a province. Sallust has written a 
history of the Jugurthan wars, which are also described 
in all histories of Rome. 


CHINA — INDIA — ARABIA. 

In V Art de Verifier les Dates are given the names 
of Chinese kings from 2838 B. C. ; but. as the his- 
tory is unknown, it is not worth while to record 
them in this manual. For the same reason, we omit 
the names of the kings of Arabia, and of India. But 
with respect to India, curious students are recom- 
mended to read Heeren’s India, in the third volume of 
his Researches in Asia. 


THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 


The history of the world becomes so complicated 
after the Christian era, that it will be found the best 
method to paint the histories of each country sepa- 
rately into the Chart, one after another. The manual 
will, therefore, now give the chronology in this way : 
The teacher can point out upon the Mural Chart, the 
whole sweep of the nation in question through the cen- 
turies, by showing the colored representations of the 
events. The student, whether teacher or pupil, should 
be conscientious in hanging round the dates associa- 
tions of particular anecdotes and circumstances, that 
shall create interest, and refresh and enliven the mem- 
ory. For this purpose, it is necessary to consult the 
best historical works that can be procured. An Ency- 
clopaedia, or the Conversations Lexicon, may in some 
instances be the only resource ; but wherever it is pos- 
sible, standard works should be procured of such 
authors as write history with the fulness of soul with 
which a poet sings his song. In general, such works as 
are found in Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia are not of 
the highest character, being written to order , rather than 
by the spontaneous action of their authors. For ancient 
history, the best sources are Herodotus, Thucydides, 
Xenophon, and Tacitus, among contemporary writers ; 
and among critics, Arnold’s History of Rome, Niebuhr’s 
History from the First Punic War to Constantine, and 
Michelet’s Roman Republic. Plutarch is also a great 
resource, though he is neither a contemporary nor a 
critic. What is most valuable in him is the anecdotes 
and sayings he reports. 

We are also well provided with the history of the 
first 1000 or 1500 years of the Christian era, in Sis- 
mondi’s and in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 


61 


Roman Empire. Sismondi is the more impartial narra- 
tive. He gives the first thousand years very clearly, 
and shows the rise of Mahometanism, and the birth of 
the several nations of modern Europe. Gibbon has 
more details, and also carries the history up to the fall 
of the Eastern Empire, in the fifteenth century. Sis- 
mondi ought to be in every school library ; and, as the 
American edition is out of print, it would be a great 
service to historical education, if the publishers would 
put it into the common school series. 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 


Augustus had become emperor, B. C. 29. 

A. D. 


14 

19 

23 

26 

27 

31 

37 

41 

51 

54 

55 
59 

61 

62 

64 

65 
67 


TsSfresdias, his step-son, is emperor. 

He has Germanicus poisoned. (9.) 

His own son, Drusus, is poisoned. 

Tiberius removes to Capreae. (6.) 

Christ is crucified. (Red cross in orange.) 

Tiberius’s favorite, Sejanus, executed. 

Caligula, son of Germanicus, emperor. 

Claudius, son of Drusus, succeeds him. 

Romans conquer the British ; carry Caractacus 
prisoner to Rome. '(1, 2, 3.) 

Hero, grandson of Germanicus. 

He poisons his brother Britannic us. 

Assassinates his mother, Agrippina, and his aunt 
Domitia, and others. 

Romans victorious over Boadicea of Britain, 
who destroys herself. (2, 9.) 

Nero puts to death his tutor, Afranius Burrhus, 
and his own wife, Octavia. 

He sets fire to Rome. (6.) Begins the first per- 
secution of Christians. (9 f.) 

He puts to death Lucian, Seneca, and his wife, 
Poppeia. 

Corbulo, the conqueror of Armenia, only escapes 
assassination by suicide. 


t The cross signifies a persecution. 


62 


THE llOMAN EMPIRE. 


68 

69 


70 

79 


80 

81 

95 

96 
98 

107 

108 
112 

117 

118 

130 

132 

133 
138 
148 
161 

180 

193 

198 

202 

208 

211 

212 

216 

217 


twallba succeeds; is assassinated. 

saluted emperor by the assassins, but Vi* 
tellius is proclaimed in Germany ; and Ves- 
pasian in the East, who prevails. 

Titus conquers and destroys Jerusalem. 

Titus, emperor, “The delight of mankind. 1 *’ 
Herculaneum and Pompeii destroyed. (4.) 

And Pliny the Elder perishes. (9.) 

Agricola conquers and governs Britain. (2.) 
llomitian succeeds his brother Titus. 

Second persecution of Christians. 

Mena, just, but feeble through age. 

Trajan, his colleague, succeeds him. 

He conquers Dacia, after a long war. 

Allows a third persecution of Christians. 

Makes war on the Parthian Chosroes. 

Adrian makes peace with the Parthians. 

He builds a wall in Britain to defend his prov- 
ince from the Piets. (8.) 

He rebuilds Jerusalem, and calls it JElia. (8.) 
Publishes the code of Salvius Julian. (8.) 
Banishes the Jews from Judaea. (2.). 

Titus Antoninus Pius succeeds him; 
Defeats Moors, Germans, and Dacians. (2.) 

Mia reus Aurelius, his adopted son, suc- 
ceeds, and defeats Parthians and Marcomanni. 
Conmiodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, succeeds. 

Sarmatians and Goths attack the Romans. 
Pertinax elected by the Praetorians ; then, 
Septisnius Severn® prevails over two rivals. 
He takes Babylon and Seleucia from the Par- 
thians. 

Fifth persecution of the Christians. 

He builds a wall in Britain, and dies in York. (69.) 
€a racalla and 41 eta succeed their father. 
Caracalla murders his brother Geta. 

He makes war on the Parthians. 

IMlact’inus, emperor, having murdered Cara- 
calla, makes peace with the Parthians. 


THE HOMAN EMPIRE. 


63 


218 

222 

223 

235 

236 

237 


242 

244 

249 

250 

251 
253 
257 
260 

264 

268 

270 

272 

273 

275 

276 

277 

278 
280 
282 

284 

286 

292 


3Ieliogabaiu§, cruel and voluptuous, emperor. 
Alexander Seversis, an excellent emperor, 
Is victorious over Persians, at Tadmor. 
iJSaxiamn, a gigantic ruffian Goth. 

Sixth persecution of the Christians. 

The Cwortlsaaas, father and son, afterwards 
MLaxiuius and Halbismis. All die, and then, 
^ordsasi the Younger becomes emperor. 
Gordian defeats the Persian king Sapor. 

Pill 8 ip the Arabian, emperor. 

Decius, who reconquers Dacia. 

Seventh persecution of the Christians. 

£*allit$, eighth persecution of Christians. 
Eiiiilianiis killed. Valerian succeeds him. 
Ninth persecution of Christians. 

Valerian taken prisoner by Sapor. 

Cwaliieims declared emperor. 

Makes alliance with Odenatus of Palmyra, an 
Arabian, and husband of Zeuobia. 
CiamSius II. He defeats 300,000 Goths. 
Aurelia si, a great warrior. 

Repulses the Goths and Germans ; 

Conquers and destroys Palmyra: but 
Loses Dacia, and persecutes Christians. 
Tacitus, Florfnn, finally Probus. 

Probus conquers Germans; favors Franks. 
Encourages agriculture ; builds 70 cities. (8.) 
Defeats the Persians. 

Cams, who is succeeded by his two sons, 
Carinus and Amsieriamss. 

Dioclesian, elected by the army. 

He makes Maximiafli his colleague. 

Makes Constantins and Galerius Cresars. 


296 

303 

304 


306 


Takes Alexandria ; recovers Britain. 

Tenth persecution of the Christians. 

Dioclesian and Maximian resign. 

Constaiitius and Valerius become em- 
perors. (5.) 

Cosastaiafliae the Great, with three colleagues. 


64 


THE IlOMAN EMPIRE. 


314 

319 

325 

328 

330 

335 

337 

340 

350 

353 

361 

362 

363 

364 
375 

378 

379 
583 
394 


He defeats his colleagues, and reigns alone. 

He establishes Christianity. 

He assembles the council of Nice. 

Removes the seat of government to Byzantium. 
Consecrates it as Constantinople. 

He divides the empire to his sons. (6.) 
Constantine II. Constantius II. Con- 
stans. 

Constantine defeated and killed by Constans. 
Constans killed in Spain, by Magentius. 
Constantius defeats Magentius. 

Julian the Apostate, succeeds Constantius. 
Reestablishes paganism at Rome. 

Jovian restores Christianity. 

Yalentinian I. associates Valens with him. 
Gratian succeeds his father, Yalentinian. 
Yalens dies. Gratia n is sole emperor. 

Gratian gives the East to Theodosius. 
Yalentinian II. succeeds his brother Gratian. 
Yalentinian dies. Theodosius, emperor, 
who divides the kingdom, at his death, be- 
tween his two sons, making the division of 
Western and Eastern Empire. 


WESTERN EMPIRE. 


(Old Roman Red.) 

395 Honoring. 

403 Stilicho defeats Al- 
aric. 

410 Alaric sacks Rome. 

424 Yalentinian 

III. 

426 Romans evacuate 
Britain. 

451 JEtius routs Attila. 
454 Emperor -kills iEti- 
us, 


455 And is killed by 
Fe Iron ins 
Maximus; who 
becomes emperor, 
and marries Eu- 
doxia, but is im- 
mediately killed, 
and A vitus be- 
comes emperor. 

457 Majoria ntis. 

461 Severus III. 

467 Anthemius. 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 


65 


472 

473 

474 

475 

476 
493 


Olybrius. 

Glycerins. 

Juliu§ T¥epos. 

ISosmihi^ Aug ust ulus, last emperor of the 
Western Empire, defeated by 
Odoacer, king of the Heruli, who establishes a 
kingdom ; 

Conquered by Theodoric, king of the Ostro- 
goths. 


395 

408 

438 

450 

457 

474 

491 

518 

526 

527 
529 

528 
534 
537 
565 
578 
582 
602 
610 

641 

642 
668 


EASTERN EMPIRE. (Macedonian blue black.) 

Arcadius, brother of Honorius. 
Theodosius SI. and his sister Pulcheria. 

He publishes the Theodosian code. 

.71 arc ia u calls the council at Chalcedon. 
Leo, the Thracian, first sovereign crowned by 
the patriarch. 

Leo IS., who' dies, and Zcaio, his brother, 
becomes emperor. 

Anastasius I. Green and blue factions rage, 
•fust in. 

Sends Belisarius against the Persians. 
•Justinian 1. 

Belisarius defeats the Persians. 

Justinian code first published. 

Belisarius defeats the Vandals in Africa. 
Justinian builds St. Sophia in Constantinople. 
•Instill II. Belisarius dies in prison. 
Tiberius II. Constantine. 

Maurice, the Avaricious. 

Phocas, a monster in body and mind. 
Bleraclius, victorious over the Persians. 
Heraclius Constantine, 103 days; then 
Heraclionas, with two colleagues. 
Constans II. robbed by the Saracens. 
Constantine IV., Pogonatus. 

6 # 


66 

678 

685 

695 

697 

698 

705 

711 

713 

716 

717 

726 

741 

752 

770 

775 

780 

781 

785 

786 

788 

793 

802 

811 

813 

821 

829 

842 

867 

880 

886 

910 

919 

959 

963 

969 

975 

1028 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 


He makes a treaty with the caliphs. 

Ju§tiHiaia II. banished by Leontius. 
Leontius emperor in his stead. 

Saracens take Africa from the emperor. 
Absimarus, for seven years emperor. 

•I la stisi Ism II. restored; ferocious. 

Philip Bardanes, who was exiled. 
Anastasias II., who associated with him 
Theodosius III., who yielded to 
Lc© III., the Isaurian. 

He forbids image worship. 

Constantine V., Copronymus. 

He persecutes the image worshippers. 

He dissolves the Eastern monasteries. 

ILc© IV., who married the famous Irene. 
Constantine VI., and his mother. Irene. 
Irene restores image worship. 

Empire invaded by Haroun A1 Raschid. 
Constantine imprisons Irene for her cruelty. 
Irene puts Constantine to death. 

Irene proposes to marry Charlemagne, but is 
dethroned by Nicephorus. 

Vicephorws, an iconoclast. 

Michael €wr© palates. 

Leo V., the Armenian. 

Michael IS., the Stammerer. 

Theophilws, a zealous iconoclast. 

Michael ISS., called the Drunkard. 

Basil, the Macedonian. 

He vanquishes the Saracens. 

Leo VI., called the Philosopher. 
Constantine VII., and his four sons. 
Boinanus I. 

Bomanus II. * the parricide. 

Aicephortis Phocas, a great captain, who 
marries the empress Theophane. 

John Zitnisees, who murdered Nicephorus; 

victorious over Russians and Saracens. 

Basil and Constantine VIII., brothers. 
Romanus III., Argyrus. 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 


67 


1034 

1041 

1042 

1056 

1057 
1059 

1068 


1071 

1078 

1081 

1118 

1143 

1180 

1183 

1195 

1203 

1204 


Michael IV., the Paphlagonian, marries Zoe. 

Michael V. driven from the throne, when 

1 heodora and ^oe reign. The latter mar- 
ries Constantine IX., and crowns him. 

Michael VI., who is superseded by 

Isaac Comnenes, who abdicates to 

Constantine A., Ducas, who leaves the 
throne to Rudoxia and her three sons. 

Roanamis Biogenes, whom Eudoxia mar- 
ries. 

Michael VII., son of Constantine Ducas. 

Nicephoros Hot on, with Nicephorus 
Bryenne. 

Alexis Comnenes; quarrels with crusaders, 

John, his son, in spite of Nicephorus Bryenne. 

Manuel, son of John Comnenes. 

Alexis II. 

Andronicus I., grandson of Alexis I. 

Isaac Angelas, descended from Alexis I. 

Alexis III., whose brother supersedes him. 

Alexis IV., superseded by Murza pul us. 

Constantinople was taken by the crusaders, who 
made Baldwin first Latin emperor; but 
with this Latin emperor at Constantinople, 
was contemporary a Greek emperor at Nicsea, 
for thirty-six years, viz. : 


GREEK. 

1206 Theodore ILas- 
caris I. 

1222 John Ducas 

Vataces, who 
defeated Baldwin 
in 1240, and was 
succeeded by 

Theodore Tascaris II., succeeded by his 


LATIN. 

1206 Henry I. 

1216 Peter Courte- 
nay. 

1221 Robert Courte- 
nay. 

1228 Baldwin II. 


1255 


1259 


son 

John, with Michael Palaeologus, as 

guardian. 


68 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 


1282 

1332 

1341 

1391 

1425 

1448 


Androziiciis PaBjeologus. 

Aiadft'osucus III., his grandson. 

Jolm, and Johai Canfaciixc^Bios. 
Inmiell Falaeolo^us, son of John. 

Jolasa Palaeolo^iis, son of Manuel. 
Cosistasstine XIII., Pala^ologus, conquered 
by the Turkish Amurath II., May 29, 1453. 


N. B. Directions concernmg the painting of the 
Modern History Chart. — There are so many dates of 
modern history, that it may be necessary to leave out 
some of them upon the great Mural Chart, in order that 
it should not be confused. The preference will be 
given to the English and American dates, and then will 
come the empire; then the principal French dates. 
But the student can fill tip his century book, as he 
studies one history after the other ; and he can also 
have a different century book for each history he 
studies, and make the events of whatever nation he is 
studying prominent. When the history of two nations 
is implicated, the squares or subdivisions should be 
divided into triangles ; but when contemporaneous 
events take place that do not connect the nations in 
question with each other, the squares or subdivisions 
should be subdivided into parallelograms or squares. 
The students can put any crosses, hieroglyphics, &c., 
which they find help their memory, into their century 
books. 


MODERN HISTORY. 


Modern history involves the decline and fall of the 
Roman empire, by necessity ; but it receives all its char- 
acteristics from the barbarous nations of the north, east, 
and south-east, which poured in upon what had arrogated 
to itself the name of the civilized world. The germs 
of the nations which formed the states that constitute 
modem Europe, are mostly traced to Scandinavia. 
How they came to be there, is yet involved in the 
auroral mists of mythological history. The student is 
referred, for the best information on the early history 
of Northern Europe, to such books as the Chronicles 
of the Kings of Norway, translated by Samuel Laing ; 
Wheaton’s History of the Northmen ; Mallet’§ Northern 
Antiquities, translated from L’Histoire de Danemarck , 
&c., &c. But those who have not access to better 
sources, can find much information in a history of 

DENMARK, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN, 

published in Harper’s Family Library. This informs 
us of the names of the kings of the three nations, with 
traditions attached. Odin is said to be the founder of 
both kingdoms, Norway and Sweden. From Skiold, 
his son, is named the dynasty which reigned in Den- 
mark from the middle of the century before Christ 
till the middle of the eleventh century. From the 
same stem come the Ynglings, who reigned in Sweden 
till the middle of the seventh century, when Olaf was 
invaded by the Skioldungs, who kept possession of the 
throne of Sweden till the middle of the eleventh cen- 
tury. Olaf, however, went west, and settled in Nor- 
way, where Harold Harfargar, founder of the Norwegian 
monarchy, renewed the royal honors of the Ynglings. 


70 


DENMARK, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN. 


The names and dates of the Yngling kings of Norway 
are given, extending to the middle of the eleventh 
century; and, from that time, the three kingdoms go 
on, side by side, till the union of Calmar, A. D. 1388, 
when Margaret, the daughter of the Danish YValdemar, 
wife of Hakon VI. of Norway, and mother of Olaf, 
the last male heir of Norway, was chosen, by the dis- 
contented subjects of Albert, sovereign of Sweden 
also. We then have the following chronology. 


A. D. 

1388 

1412 

1440 

1448 

1481 

1513 


Margaret, sovereign of the three kingdoms. 

Eric succeeds, but is deposed in all the king- 
doms. 

Christopher unites them all ; and so does 

Christian I., who, however, afterwards loses 
Sweden. 

John, or Hans, succeeds, whom Sweden resists. 

Christian II. unites them all, but loses first 
Sweden, and then Denmark, by his insane 
cruelties ; and from his time, the division has 
been permanent, of 


DENMARK AND NORWAY 

1522 Frederic I. 

1533 Christian Ilf. 

1559 Frederic II. 

1588 Christian IV., who 
was king all 
thrdligh the Thir- 
ty Years’ war. 

1648 Frederic III. 

1670 Christian V. 

1699 Frederic IV. 

1730 Christian VI. 

1746 Frederic Y. 

1766 Christian VII., all 
through the Fr. 
Revolution. 

1808 Frederic VI. 

184 Frederic VII. 


from SWEDEN. 

1523 Gustavus Yasa. 
1560 Eric XIY. 

1568 John III. 

1592 Sigismund. 

1598 Charles IX. 

1612 Gustavus Adolphus. 
1632 Christina. 

1654 Charles X. 

1660 Charles XI. 

1696 Charles XII. 

1718 Frederic and Ulrica. 
1751 Adolphus Frederic. 
1771 Gustavus III. 

1792 Gustavus IY. 

1809 Charles XIII. 

1818 Charles John. 

18 Oscar. 


RUSSIA. 


71 


RUSSIA. 

This immense empire was not consolidated into 
unity until nearly the middle of the last century. (See 
IV Art de Verifier les Dates.) The Russians proper 
are Sclavonians ; the Varengians were a German race ; 
and Tartaric nations form a large element of this 
people. Kiev and Novogorod were founded as early 
as the fifth century. It is not known which race 
founded Kiev; but Novogorod was a Sclavic republic, 
which was at one time so proud, that its word was, 
Who attacks God and Novogorod ? But in the ninth 
century, supposing itself in desperate circumstances, it 
called to its assistance the Scandinavian Ruric, who 
founded a dynasty which produced fifty-two sover- 
eigns. (Paint the dates deep pink.) 


A. D. 

1533 

1584 

1598 

1605 

1606 


The last but one, Ivan IV., proclaimed himself 
czar of all the Russias. 

The dynasty became extinct under his weak 
successor, Fedor. 

Boris Godonouf succeeded him. Then, 

Demetrius, (declaring himself Fedor’s son.) 

Yassili Chouiski succeeded him ; but he, also, 
was dethroned, and the Russians conferred the 
crown on the present dynasty of Romanoff — 
descended, on the maternal side, from the 
Rurics. 


1613 

Michael. 

1645 

Alexis. 

1676 

Fedor 11. 

1682 

Sophia and 
brothers. 

1696 

Peter I. 

1725 

Catharine I. 

1727 

Peter II. 


1730 Anne. 

1740 Ivan. 

1741 Elizabeth. 
1762 Peter III. 

Catharine II, 
1796 Paul. 

1801 Alexander. 
1825 Nicholas. 


72 


RUSSIA — POLAND. 


There is no history of Russia in English, if in any 
language, written with impartiality, and in the spirit 
of freedom. The lives of Peter the Great and of 
Catharine II. throw light on particular periods ; also, 
Rulhiere’s Revolution in Russia, which forms a part 
of his Anarchie de Pologne. 


POLAND. (Bright pink.) 

This Sclavic nation believes itself to have been indi- 
genous to its present locality; but its early history is 
involved in inextricable difficulties, the first Christian 
missionaries having destroyed every monument of its 
ancient eras. Republicanism is interwoven into its 
oldest municipal regulations ; and although we hear of 
noble and peasant, yet, as noble and peasant are of the 
same race, unlike the case of the feudal Germanic 
nations, the boundaries of rank were never hard to 
pass, and the nobility was perpetually derived from the 
peasantry, who could always attain rank, either by 
doing a military service of importance, or receiving a 
university education. Rulhiere’s Anarchie de Pologne , 
notwithstanding its ominous title, is a good account of 
Poland, and Lelewel has written a history of his native 
country, in French. But in English there is no history 
of Poland, written in the spirit of freedom, except 
Krasinski’s History of the Reformation in Poland. 
The instinct of self-preservation has prompted the abso- 
lute governments of Europe to throw a false coloring 
upon all the vicissitudes of its history ; and the compi- 
lation of Fletcher, published in Harper’s Family 
Library, is not critical, but indorses the stereotyped 
falsehoods. A history of Poland should be written for 
the instruction of American republicans ; but the 
author of it should be a Polish scholar, having free 
access to its rich historical literature, and capable of 
entering into all its intellectual life and works. There 
are not many fields for intellectual activity, which 


POLAND. 


73 


would afford a richer harvest to an industrious and 
enthusiastic student, than Polish literature. We can 
do nothing more here than add a list of the Polish 
kings, with their dates. The names of the dukes, 
beginning with Lech, A. D. 550, and lasting three 
hundred years, to Popiel II., it is not worth while to 
give, as their names seldom occur in any other his- 
tory. 


A. D. 

842 

861 

892 

913 

964 

992 

1025 

1041 

1058 

1081 

1102 

1138 

1177 

1194 

1227 

1279 

1295 

1296 
1300 

1333 


1370 


Piast, a simple peasant, elected for his virtues, 
founded a dynasty of kings. His son 

Ziemovit extended his dominions by conquest. 

Leszek, ) reigned over a country extending 

Ziemomysl, 5 from Russia to Bohemia. 

Mieczislav, the first Christian king of Poland. 

Boleslav the Great added Silesia, Crakov, and 
Pomerania to the kingdom of Poland. 

Mieczislav II., succeeded by his wife Rixa. 

Kasimir I., surnamed Pacific, and the Restorer. 

Boleslav the Bold, who died in Hungary. 

Vladislav Herman, and his favorite, Sieciech. 

Boleslav III., and his brother, Zbigniev. 

Mieczislav III. Boleslav IV. Vladislav II. 
Henri. 

Kasimir II., the Just, reigns alone, at last. 

Leszek, having conquered his uncle, Mieczis- 
lav III. 

Boleslav the Chaste, invaded by Mongols. 

Leszek the Black, descended from Leszek the 
White. 

Przemislav, descended from Mieczislav III. 

Vladislav Loketck, who yielded for a time to 

Venceslav, king of Bohemia. 

Kasimir III., lawgiver of Poland, founder of the 
University of Cracow, emancipator of the 
Jews, and last of the dynasty of Piast. 

Louis, king of Hungary, designated by his uncle 
Kasimir, was elected king. At his death, 
Louis designated, for his successor, his son-in- 


74 


POLAND — HUNGARY. 


law, Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, whose 
fierceness caused him to be deposed, and 
Louis’s daughter, Hedwiga, was proclaimed 
queen, who married 
1385 Vladislav V., first of the Jagellon dynasty. 

1434 Vladislav VI. 

1445 Kasimir IV., his brother. 

1492 John Albert. 

1501 Alexander, his brother. 

1506 Sigismund 1., father-in-law of Stephen Batory. 
1548 Sigismund II., Augustus, last of the Jagellons. 

1574 Henry was elected, who abdicated to become 

king of France, where he was Henry III. 

1575 Stephen Batory, prince of Transylvania, a great 

king. 

1587 Sigismund III., of Sweden. 

1632 Vladislav VII., his son. 

1648 John Kasimir V., another son. 

1669 Michael Coribut, YViecnowiacki. 

1674 | John Sobieski, conqueror of the Turks. 

1697 | Augustus II., elector of Saxony, superseded by 
1704 Stanislas Lesczinski, (for a short time.) 

1734 Augustus III. succeeds Augustus II. 

1764 Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski, in whose reign 
1772 Poland was partitioned. 

1794 Kosciusko’s insurrection and death. 

1830 Revolution — suppressed in 1831. At this time 
the provisional government, officers of the army, and 
a large body of the literati and poets of Poland, emi- 
grated, who have proved the seeds of revolution, as 
they have been the preachers, as well as martyrs, of 
liberty, all over Europe and America, and even in Asia, 
among the heroic Caucasians. 


HUNGARY. 

This country does not take its name from the Huns, 
though it happens to be the very locality in which the 


HUNGARY. 


75 


Huns paused, for a season, in the fourth century. 
These barbarians were a Tartaric horde, who appeared 
in Europe, A. D. 376, when they subdued, fora season, 
the Ostrogoths, and drove the Visigoths out of Panno- 
nia into the empire. (Paint the dates in brown ochre.) 

A. D. 


397 They invaded the empire ; but 
449 Theodosius II. made a treaty with Attila, prom- 
ising a tribute, which Marcian, his successor, 
refused to pay. 

Attila invaded Gaul, and was defeated by the 
imperial iEtius, aided by the Visigoths, Franks, 
and Burgundians. 

He invaded Venetia, whose inhabitants fled to 
the islands, and founded Venice. Then he 
poured into Italy, but was dissuaded from 
going to Rome. 

Attila died, and his son Irnak seems to have 
retired eastward. We hear nothing of the 
Huns in Europe after this, though the Szeklys 
of Transylvania are their descendants. 

The Avars, a tribe kindred to the Huns, came 
into Pannonia, assisted the Lombards to con- 
quer the Gepidse, and made other conquests. 
Charlemagne effectually broke their power. 

The Magyars, under seven chiefs, arrived in 
Europe. They were a mixture of the Tartaric and 
Caucasian races. They brought a constitution and 
writing, and took possession of Transylvania and Pan- 
nonia. They ravaged Germany to the Rhine. They 
invaded Italy, and vanquished Berenger I., but were 
repulsed by the Count of Thoulouse from his own 
dominions and from Spain, and by King Raoul from 
France, after which they withdrew themselves within 
their present bounds, where they have always main- 
tained themselves, and sometimes gone beyond their 
present boundaries. The trite history of the Magyars 
of Hungary has been hidden from the rest of Europe, 
for the same reasons, and from the same causes, as that 


451 


452 


453 


568 


799 

889 


76 


HUNGARY. 


of Poland ; for their language has less affinities with 
the western languages than the Polish, and their spirit 
is quite of an opposite character to that of the despotic 
nations which surround them on every side but that 
of Poland. Since the evil day when they chose a 
king from the house of Austria, they have been, more 
or less, the confessors and martyrs of constitutional 
liberty. (See Sismondi’s Histoire des Frangais.) 
Their noble story should be written in English, for the 
republicans of America, by some one adequate to the 
beautiful task. We can only give here a list of their 
kings, beginning with Waic, son of duke Geisa I., of the 
race of Arpad, who was converted to Christianity, and 


A. D. 

966 

1000 

1038 

1047 

1061 

1063 

1076 

1077 


1290 

1301 

1342 

1382 

1392 

1437 

1440 

1453 


Baptized by the name of Stephen. 

Pope Sylvester crowned him Stephen I. 
Peter, for a time superseded by Aba. 
Andrew I., a relative of Peter. 

Bela I., brother and vanquisher of Andrew. 
Salomon, son of King Andrew. 

Geisa I. supersedes Salomon. 

Vladislas, son of Bela I. 


1095 Colomon. 
1114 Stephen II. 
1131 Bela II. 

1141 Geisa II. 
1160 Stephen III. 
1174 Bela III. 


1196 Emeric. 

1204 Vladislav II. 

1205 Andrew II. 
1235 Bela IV. 

1270 Stephen IV. 
1272 Vladislav III. 


Andrew III. prevails over Charles Martel. 
Charobert prevails over Wenceslav of Bohemia. 
Louis the Great, also elected king of Poland. 
Mary, who marries Sigismund of Brandenburg. 
Sigismund, (who becomes emperor.) 

Albert, (also king of Bohemia and emperor.) 
Vladislav V. of Poland is IV. of Hungary. 
Interregnum. Hunyadi becomes governor. 
Vladislav V. (Hunyadi defeats the Turks.) 


THE VANDALS. 


77 


1458 Matthias Corvin, son of Hunyadi, elected. 

1490 Vladislas of Bohemia, son of Kasimir IV., of 
Poland. 

15 1G Louis II., defeated by the Turks. 

1526 John Zapolski, who was obliged to yield to Fer- 
dinand I. of Austria, elected by another party. 

After this time, the emperors of the house of Austria 
have been successively chosen kings of Hungary, 
promising to govern it according to the Hungarian con- 
stitution — a promise they have constantly violated, 
more or less, until the declaration of Hungarian inde- 
pendence, in 1848, which called out the atrocities of 
the Austrian-Russian war and victory of 1849. 


THE VANDALS. 


These people, being of Scandinavian origin, are to 
be represented in bluish green. They were first known 
on the southern side of the Baltic. 


A. D. 

401 


406 


409 

429 


435 

439 

455 


Godigesilas, their king, was called by the Roman 
general Stilicho to fight with him against 
the Franks. 

He was killed. In the same year, Gonderic, his 
successor, together with the Alani and Suevi, 
crossed the Rhine, conquered the Romans, 
and spread through Gaul. 

They entered Spain, and settled in Andalusia. 

Genseric was called into Africa, by the imperial 
governor there, (for Africa was a province of 
the Eastern Empire,) and founded a kingdom. 

He made peace with Valentinian III., but 

He besieged and took Carthage, and made it his 
capital. 

He was called into Italy, by Eudoxia, the em- 
press, who wished to punish Petronius Maxi- 
mus, who had murdered her husband and taken 
her for a wife ; and he sacked Rome. 

7* 


78 


ITALY. 


477 Huneric succeeded him, and married Eudoxia. 

484 Gunthemond succeeded, who fought with the 
Moors. 

496 Thrasamond succeeded, who was defeated by 
the Moors. 

523 Childeric succeeded, who was dethroned by the 
Moors. 

530 Gelimir, the last Vandal king, succeeded, who 
was 

533 Conquered by Belisarius, the imperial general, 
after which time Africa remained a province of the 
Eastern Empire, until it was conquered by the Mahom- 
etans, in the next century. 


ITALY. 

A. D. 476, the fall of the Western Empire was con- 
summated, when Romulus Augustulus, last emperor of 
the West, was conquered by Odoacer, king of the 
Heruli, a northern people, who had sojourned just 
before in Pannonia. A. D. 493, the Heruli of Italy 
were conquered by the Ostrogoths. The Goths were 
originally from Scandinavia, but had, before this time, 
settled north and south of the Karpat Mountains, and 
east of the river Dnieper. The latter portion were 
called Ostrogoths, and came into relation with the 
Eastern Empire after A. D. 376, when they were 
invaded by the Huns. Theodoric, one of their kings, 
was educated in Constantinople, having been given as 
a hostage to the Emperor Leo I., and he was instigated, 
by the Emperor Zeno, to go into Italy, and drive out the 
Heruli. That object was effected A. D. 489, and the 
Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy stretched, in 526, to the 
Rhone, comprehending Provence. The Eastern Em- 
pire still, however, held a seat at Ravenna, and com- 
prehended the sea-coast of Italy all round the penin- 
sula ; and Justinian sent his general, Narses, A. D. 553, 


ITALY. 


79 


to conquer the Ostrogoths. He effected it ; but being 
soon after recalled from the office of exarchate of 
Ravenna, which had been given him, he invited the 
Lombards to fail upon Italy. They had just conquered 
the Northern Goths, Gepidae ; and Alboin, their leader, 
had married Rosamond, the daughter of the Gepid 
king, Cunimond, out of whose skull he commanded 
her to drink ! 

Alboin entered Italy A. D. 568, and founded the 
Lombard kingdom there, which was governed by 
twenty-one kings before it was conquered by Charle- 
magne, A. D. 774. The pope, Leo III., in gratitude for 
this service, as he considered it, crowned Charlemagne 
Emperor of the West. At his death, the imperial 
crown became an “ apple of discord ” among his 
descendants ; and, ever since, Italy has been the object 
of the cupidity of the Germans and French, and, at a 
later day, of the Spaniards. Its history is, conse- 
quently, very complicated, and can only be understood 
by long and careful study. 

The most adequate source of information upon the 
history of Italy is an admirable and interesting work 
of Sismondi, Les Republiques Italiennes , which has 
been epitomized very meagrely into English, but ought 
to be well translated for the instruction of American 
republicans. In the mean time, readers of English 
must seek out the events in a history of Italy published 
in Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia,* Roscoe’s Lives of 
Lorenzo the Magnificent and Leo X. ; lives of other 
great men of Italy ; Ranke’s History of the Popes ; 
Pignotti’s or Machiavelli’s History of Tuscany, (which 
are all in English,) &c., &c. Undoubtedly Botta’s 
History of Italy is a fine work, but it has not been 
translated into English. 

N. B. The dates of the Heruli and Lombards are 
to be designated in yellow green, but can be distin- 
guished by inserting, also, the initials H. and L. The 
Goths are to be designated in blue green, but to be dis- 
tinguished from the Vandals, and each other, by insert- 
ing the initials respectively, O. G., V. G., and V. 


80 


SPAIN. 


SPAIN. 

The power of the empire declined in Spain from 
the time of Trajan. In A. D. 409, the Suevi, under Her- 
manrick, burst over the Pyrenees, with the Alans and 
the Vandals. A. I). 418, the Suevic kingdom of Spain 
was founded, and lasted till A. D. 584, when it yielded 
to the Gothic Leovigild. For, as early as A. D. 411, 
Honorius had given the southern part of Gaul, together 
with Spain, to the Visigoths, whose king, Euric. eighth 
of the line of Alaric, established his court in Spain, 
A. D. 466. 

These Visigoths received their name from their resi- 
dence on the west of the Dnieper, whence they were 
driven by the Huns, A. D. 376. (They are designated, 
on the Chart, with the same color as the Ostrogoths: but, 
for further distinction, the pupils can put V. G. and 
O. G. on the respective colored representations.) They 
solicited and obtained leave from the Emperor Valens 
to cross the Danube and settle, on giving promise of 
defending the empire from the Huns. Soon, however, 
war broke out, and, A. D. 378, they gained a victory 
at Adrianople, where Valens lost his life. Theodosius 
the Great humbled them for a season ; but, A. D. 395, 
Alaric, their king, instigated by the traitorous imperial 
general, Rtifinus, ravaged Thrace and Macedonia; 
and, although he was acknowledged general of Illyria 
by the Emperor Arcadius, he desolated Venetia and 
Italy ; and, on a massacre of the Goths taking place in 
Italy, by order of the Emperor Honorius, he sacked 
Rome, A. D. 410. But dying soon after, his son, 
Ataulf, made peace with the emperor, and married his 
sister, Placidia — establishing his court at Thoulouse, 
in France, A. D. 412, whence the conquests of the 
Visigoths spread over France and Spain ; and to the 
latter country they were at length driven by the 
Franks. A. D. 711, Roderick, the last of the Goths 
in Spain, was conquered by the Saracens, who had 
been invited thither by the sons of his rival, Witiza. 


SPAIN. 


81 


The Christians, being driven into the mountains by 
the Saracens and Moors, founded, A. D. 718, the king- 
doms of the Asturias and Leon ; A. D. 801, Barcelona; 
A. D. 873, Navarre ; A. D. 1026, Castile, united to 
Leon about a century afterwards ; A. D. 1035, Arragon, 
about four centuries afterwards united to Castile. The 
early history of these kingdoms is obscure. The 
Chronicle of the Cid, translated by Southey, throws 
light upon the spirit of the early times, and is fasci- 
nating to young readers. Prescott’s History of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella gives account of their union and 
reign. A. D. 1475, they conquered the Moors. After 
Isabella’s death, Philip I. of Austria, husband of Juana, 
was acknowledged king, but died before Ferdinand, 
who reigned alone afterwards, till his own death, when 
Charles, Archduke of Austria, his grandson, became 
sole heir of Spain, in right of his mother ; as well as 
of Flanders and Austria, in right of his father ; and was 
subsequently elected emperor, also, under the title of 
Charles Y. The succession of the kings of Spain are, 


A. D. 

1476 Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella. 

1506 Philip I. and Juana. 
1516 Charles I. (and Y.) 
1556 Philip II. 

1598 Philip III. 

1621 Philip IY. 

1665 Charles II. 


A. D. 

1700 Philip Y., Bour- 
bon. 

1746 Ferdinand YI. 
1759 Charles III. 

1788 Charles IY. 

1808 Ferdinand VII. 
1808 Joseph Bonaparte. 
18 Maria Isabella. 


The history of Spain, from first to last, may be found 
in five volumes of Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia, a His- 
tory of Spain and Portugal, which also contain analyt- 
ical and chronological tables, by whose assistance the 
whole detail of the history of Spain and Portugal might 
be painted into a chart, devoted to that history alone. 
Mr. Prescott’s Histories of the Conquest of Mexico 
and of Peru should be read in connection with this 
history. The American dates should follow the color 


82 


PORTUGAL. 


of the mother country, and can be distinguished by the 
letters M. and P. from Spain, S. — The History of the 
Spanish Literature, by Mr. Ticknor, doubtless throws 
much valuable light upon the intellectual and moral 
life of the country. 

N. B. Christian Spain, after the fall of the Goths, 
A. D. 711, may be designated with light or Venetian 
red. 


PORTUGAL 


Became an independent kingdom A. D. 1200, when 
it was rescued from the Moors, for Alphonso VI., king 
of Castile and Leon, by Robert I., duke of Burgundy, 
who received for recompense the hand of the king’s 
natural daughter Theresa, and a crown for his son, 
who governed, at first, under the guardianship of his 
mother. — Portugal is important to universal history 
chiefly by its connection with the early history of mar- 
itime discovery. A great deal of information, in a 
pleasant way, may be derived from the Lusiad of 
Camoens, and its notes, translated by Mickle. 

But the details, with good tables of chronology, are 
given in the above-mentioned History of Spain and 
Portugal, in Lardner’s Cyclopaedia. In connection 
with the history of Portugal, should be read Southey’s 
History of Brazil. The dates of the kings of Portugal 
are, 


A. D. 

1139 Alphonso I. 
1185 Sancho I. 
1212 Alphonso II. 
1233 Sancho II. 
1246 Alphonso III, 
1279 Dionysius. 
1325 Alphonso IV. 
1357 Peter I. 

1367 Ferdinand. 


A. D. 

1383 Interregnum. 
1385 John I. 

1433 Edward. 

1438 Alphonso V. 
1481 John II. 

1495 Emanuel. 
1521 John III. 
1557 Sebastian. 
1578 Henry. 


THE SARACENS. 


83 


1580 United with Spain 
1640 John IV. 

1656 Alphonso VI. 

1688 Peter II. 


1706 John Y. 
1750 Joseph. 
1777 Maria. 
1799 John VI. 


The only kings of Brazil, as yet, have been, — 
1815 Pedro I., and 1831 Pedro II. 


IN. B. Portugal and Brazil are to be designated with 
Indian red, and distinguished by P. and B. inserted 
thereon. 


A. D. 

569 

622 

638 

640 

651 

655 


714 

750 

762 

786 

909 

1171 


THE SARACENS. 

Mahomet born. 

His flight — the Hegira. 

Syria conquered. 

Egypt conquered. 

Persia conquered. 

Schism of the Shiahs and Sunnes, made by 
Moaviah, who conquers the empire from Ali, 
and founds the dynasty of Ommiades, that 
removes the caliphate from Medina to Damas- 
cus, where it remains ninety years, under 
fourteen successive caliphs. 

Spain conquered, and a branch of the Ommiades 
rifle there. 

The Abbassides dynasty founded, who removed 
the caliphate to Bagdad, built 

By Almanzor. Here flourished thirty-seven 
caliphs, of whom the most magnificent was 

Haroun al Raschid, who brought the Arabic 
science, art, and literature to its greatest splen- 
dor, by his patronage. 

Egypt broke off from the caliphate, and founded 
the Fatimite dynasty, of the sect of Ali, 
whose fourteenth caliph was conquered by 

Saladin, who had sixty successors, called sultans, 
before Egypt was conquered by the Turks. 


84 


THE TURKS. 


The Arabian Nights’ Tales, which were told to 
Haroun al Raschid, are a fountain of knowledge of the 
life of the Saracens. They should be read, however, 
in the translation of Edward Lane, who alone has 
made a faithful translation of them. For the history 
of the Saracens, see Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire ; or Sismondi, chapters thirteen and 
fourteen. The history of the Mahometans of Spain 
is brilliantly sketched in the introduction of Florian’s 
Gonsalve de Cordova ; and a minute history of them, 
with a chronological table of all details, is to be found 
in the first two volumes of the History of Spain and 
Portugal, in Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 


THE TURKS. 

These people, to whom the Huns and the Magyars 
are kindred, came from the ancient Scythia. A. D. 
874, the Saminides dynasty was founded, and became 
tributary to the caliph of Bagdad. One of their depend- 
ants, in 1000, was Mahmud, the Gaznevede, who was 
the first who took the title of sultan ; he made twelve 
expeditions into Hindostan. A. D. 1038, the Turco- 
mans defeated his son, and took Persia from the 
caliphate ; and one of their chiefs, Jogrul, constituted 
himself the protector of the caliphate in 1055. In 
1056, Arp Arslan, another chief, took the Emperor 
Romanus Diogenes prisoner. In 1074, Soliman founded 
the sultanate of Iconium. In 1092, the Turkish king- 
dom of Malek Shah was divided into four: Persia, 
Kerman or India, Syria, and Roum or Asia Minor. In 
Syria were established two sultanates, one at Aleppo 
and one at Damascus. The rule of the Turks over Jeru- 
salem was so much fiercer than that of the caliphs had 
been, that it provoked the crusades. In 1268, however, 
the Sultan Kalil drove the last crusaders from Asia. 

(The best history of the eight crusades against the 
Turks, is that of Michaud. ) 


ARMENIA. — THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 


85 


ARMENIA. 

A Christian kingdom of Armenia existed from the 
Christian era, in more or less agreement with the Greek 
empire, until the latter half of the fourteenth century, 
when Leon Y. de Lusignan, its last king, being con- 
quered by the Turks, went for aid to Europe. He was 
received hospitably by King Charles Y. of France, and 
afterwards by Richard II., of England ; but these 
kings were too much engaged in their mutual wars to 
afford aid to his nation, though they were liberal with 
money to himself. He lived in France fifteen years, 
and died at Paris, A. D. 1393. The Armenians pre- 
serve their Christian profession, though under the hard 
dominion of the Turks. 


THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 


This empire is Turkish, and was founded by Oth- 
rrian, on the ruins of Iconium and other Turkish sul- 
tanates, which were conquered by the Mongols in the 
thirteenth century. 


A. D. 

1298 

1359 


1453 

1517 


1526 

1528 

1529 


Was the era of Othman. 

His son Orkan succeeded, famous for having 
instituted the militia called Janizaries, who 
became so powerful that they governed the 
Porte. He also penetrated into Europe, where 
his successors continued to make progress 
until 

Mahomet II., the ninth Ottoman emperor, took 
Constantinople. 

Selim, the eleventh emperor, conquered To- 
monbeg, the sixteenth sultan of Egypt, making 
Egypt a province of the Ottoman empire. 

Soliman, his successor, conquered Rhodes. 

He overran Hungary. 

He laid siege to Vienna, but was compelled to 
retire. Soon after, he made war on Persia, 
8 


86 


PERSIA. 


and took Bagdad. He continued to make 
war, with more or less success, till he fell, in 
1566 ; and from that time the Ottoman empire 
has regularly declined until the present time. 
The Greeks revolted, and became independent. 
The Janizaries revolted, and were abolished by 
an exterminating massacre of them all. 
Mehemet Ali made Egypt independent. 

The twenty-third Ottoman emperor, Abdul 
Medjid, came upon the throne, who is now reigning, 
and is an object of interesting contemplation to the 
civilized world, who are waiting to see how he will 
act with respect to Kossuth and the other Hungarians, 
who have thrown themselves upon his hospitality. 


1820 

1826 


1839 


PERSIA. 

On the ruins of Parthia was founded, A. D. 226, a 
modern Persia, which kept independent of the Eastern 
Empire four hundred years, under the Sassanides dy- 
nasty, of whom the first was Ardshir, who professed 
and reestablished the ancient religion of Zoroaster. His 
successors, who were thirty-one in number, could not, 
however, exclude Christianity from Persia, which was 
the birthplace of Manichseism, and other heresies. 
A. D. 632, it was conquered by the Saracens, Kaled 
and Said, and annexed to the caliphate ; but, A. D. 
820, it was invaded by Mongolic nations, and not till 
A. D. 1501 united again. At that time, Shah Ismael 
established the dynasty of the Sophis, and the sect of 
Ali, in Persia. He ordered the Persians to wear red 
in their turbans, to distinguish themselves from the 
Turks, who are of the other sect. The sixteenth 
Sophi, Shah Nadir Thamas Kouli Khan, died A. D. 
1746. In 1759, Kereen Khan assumed the govern- 
ment. In 1789, Loolf Ali Khan became supreme. In 
1795, Aga Mohammed, a Turk, overpowered him. He 
was assassinated by Futteh Ali, who succeeded him in 
1797. 


THE MONGOLS. 


87 


Much of the early history of Persia may be found 
in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ; 
but the best source, upon this subject, is the History 
of Persia, by Sir John Malcolm. He also wrote, with- 
out giving his name to it, a pleasant little book, called 
Persian Sketches, which gives a vivid idea of the 
present Persia. 


THE MONGOLS. 

These people were kindred to the Turks. They 
came from the same part of Asia, and were heard of 
first in the twelfth century. A. D. 1206, Zemugin, or 
Genghis Khan, (greatest khan,) began his career. He 
conquered the north of China, Corea, Thibet, Cashmere, 
Persia, and defeated the czar of Russja. A. D. 1336, 
Octar pushed his conquests into the heart of Russia, 
Poland, and Hungary. The caliphate of Bagdad was 
terminated by Houlougou, in 1258. The city was 
sacked forty days, and 200,000 people were slaughtered. 
In 1279, Kublai Khan finished the conquest of China. 
In 1294, the Mogul empire was divided into Persia, 
called Iran ; Zagatae, the south-east of Asia ; Kapt- 
schak, Russia ; and China. 

In 1370, Tamerlane put an end to the dynasty 
of Genghis Khan, whose conquests he rivalled, for he 
ran over all the same countries, and penetrated to Delhi, 
in Hindostan, on the south ; while, on the east, he 
conquered Bajazet I., the Ottoman emperor, devastated 
even to Thrace, in Europe, and conquered Georgia. 
In 1405, he died, just as he was about to start for a 
new conquest of China, having worn in his lifetime 
fourteen crowns. 

(Gibbon has a brilliant account of the Mongols up 
to this time, in his Decline and Fail of the Roman 
Empire.) 

In 1525, Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane, founded 
a great Mongol power at Delhi. In 1556, Akbar con- 


88 


GERMANY. 


firmed this empire, which stretched from the Indus to 
the Ganges. He encouraged literature, and caused the 
Vedas to be translated from Sanscrit into Persian, and 
died in 1605. 

In 1659, Aurungzebe was a distinguished ruler, and 
the last very powerful Mongol sovereign ; for in the 
next century, by the revolts of provinces, and the inva- 
sion of Nadir Shah, the last sophi of Persia, the Mon- 
gol power was effectually broken ; and the last Mongol 
emperor died a pensioner of the East India Company, 
in 1807. 


GERMANY. 

Tacitus gives the earliest account of Germany 
which we have in an English translation. Dullers 
History of the German People ought to be, but is not, 
in English. The best source of information, for young 
people, about Germany, is an excellent history, on Mrs. 
Markham’s plan, published in London, in 1847, by 
John Murray, Albemarle Street, which is to be pub- 
lished in America. Prom this we shall take only the 
dates of the emperors ; for it would require too much 
space to give even an outline of the complicated his- 
tory of the loose Germanic confederation. 


A. D. 
800 


814 

843 

896 

900 

912 

917 

936 

973 


Charlemagne, king of France, who had con- 
quered Germany and Lombardy, was crowned, 
by the pope, emperor of all the West. 

His son Louis succeeded him, who divided the 
empire to his sons. 

Lothaire, king of Italy, Helvetia, and Lorraine. 

Arnulph, king of Germany, succeeded by his son 

Louis the Child, last of the Carlovingians. 

Conrad I., count of Franconia, elected emperor. 

Henry I., the Fowler, king of Germany. 

Otho I., the Great, crowned by the pope, 962. 

Otho II., the Red, succeeded to the empire. 


983 

1014 

1024 

1039 

1056 

1106 

1125 

1138 

1152 

1190 

1198 

1208 

1212 

1250 

1273 

1291 

1298 

1309 

1314 

1347 

1378 

1400 

1410 

1438 

1440 

1493 | 


GERMANY . 


39 


Otho III., the Prodigy, crowned emperor, 995. 

Henry II., the Saint, crowned emperor. 

Conrad III. (Salic or Merovingian) elected. 

Henry III., the Black, (who appointed Pope 
Clement II.) 

Henry IV., contemporary of Pope Gregory VII. 

Henry V., last of the Franconians. 

Lothaire II. of Saxony. 

Conrad III. (Ghibelline) heads second crusade. 

Frederic Barbarossa (Ghibelline) heads third 
crusade. 

Henry the Severe, who was king also of Ger- 
many, Burgundy, Lombardy, and Sicily. 

Philip of Hohenstaufen, (Ghibelline,) super- 
seded by 

Otho IV. of Brunswick, (Guelph,) superseded by 

Frederic II. of Hohenstaufen, king of Lom- 
bardy, Burgundy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Jeru- 
salem. (This was the year of the children’s 
crusade.) 

The imperial crown was disputed between Con- 
rad IV., William of Holland, Richard of Corn- 
wall, and Alphonso of Castile ; and there was 
a virtual interregnum in the empire, until 

Rodolph of Hapsburg, first of the Austrian 
house. 

Adolphus of Nassau, elected by bribery ; as was 

Albert of Austria, (contemporary of Wm. Tell.) 

Henry VII. of Luxemburg, (assassinated.) 

Frederic of Austria, and Louis the Bavarian. 

Charles IV. superseded Louis IV. 

Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, superseded by 

Rupert, Count Palatine. 

Jodacus of Moravia ; Sigismund of Bohemia, 
contemporary of Huss and Jerome of Prague. 

Albert II. of Austria, who reigned two years. 

Frederic III. of Styria, last emperor crowned 
by the pone, was weak and inglorious. 

Maximilian I. of Austria. Reformation. 

8* 


90 


PRUSSIA. 


1519 


1558 

1564 

1575 

1612 

1619 

1637 

1657 

1705 

1711 

1741 

1745 

1765 

1790 

1792 


1835 

1848 


Charles V., inheritor of Austria, Flanders, and 
Spain, is elected emperor, who abdicates to 
Ferdinand I., elected king of Hungary. 
Maximilian II., tolerant to Protestants. 

Rudolph II., intolerant to Protestants. 

Matthias, who was superseded by 
Ferdinand II., cruel author of Thirty Years’ war. 
Ferdinand III. (Peace of Westphalia, 1648.) 
Leopold I., who provokes revolt in Hungary. 
Joseph II. (War of Succession in Spain.) 
Charles VI., who labors to have succeed him 
Maria Theresa, disputed by Charles VII. 

Francis I. of Lorraine, the husband of Maria 
Theresa. 

Joseph II., who is not crowned in Hungary. 
Leopold II. 

Francis II., last of the Romano-Germanic em- 
perors, who, after Napoleon’s time, calls him- 
self first emperor of Austria. 

Ferdinand I. of Austria, almost an idiot. 
Hungary declares itself independent. 


Schiller’s histories of the Revolt of the Netherlands, 
and of the Thirty Years’ War, ought to be read in 
connection with the history of Germany. They are 
masterpieces for characterization and dramatic interest. 


PRUSSIA. 

This was a Sclavonian country, conquered, A. D. 
1313, by the Teutonic knights, an order formed origin- 
ally in the Holy Land, at the siege of Acre, for the 
care of the sick. In 1525, their grand master, Albert 
of Brandenburg, suppressed the order, and added 
Prussia to the mark of Brandenburg, which was set oft’ 
from Saxony, about 1140, by Conrad III., to Albert of 
Anhalt, surnamed the Bear. The elector of Branden- 
burg, who was reigning at the commencement of the 


FRANCE. 


91 


eighteenth century, received from the Emperor Charles 
VI. liberty to call himself king. A history of the 
house of Brandenburg forms a volume of the works 
of Frederic the Great, and has been translated into 
English. The names and dates of the kings of Prus- 
sia are, — 


A. D. 

1701 

1713 

1740 

1786 

1797 

1838 


Frederic I. 

Frederic William I. 

Frederic II., the Great, hero of Seven Years war. 
Frederic William II. 

Frederic William III. 

Frederic William IV. 


The lives of these kings have all been written. A 
life of Frederic the Great, by Keuler, gives a minute 
mainly correct, but rather glorifying history of Frederic 
the Great. There are many other lives of him. 

The literature of the history of Germany is vo- 
luminous ; but among their venal historians, it is 
difficult to select the truth. A history of the house 
of Austria, which shall do justice to its systematic 
and sleepless enmity to free institutions of government, 
and the crimes it has committed against Bohemia, 
Hungary, Poland, Italy, and the distant Catalonia, is 
still a desideratum. Indeed, the modern history of the 
continent of Europe needs to be rewritten, for the 
instruction of mankind, from such a standpoint as the 
intelligent countryman of Washington alone, perhaps, 
can take. 


FRANCE. 

The history of France is almost as important, to 
every American reader, as the history of England and 
the United States; and therefore our tables of chro- 
nology for it are more minute, and are literally trans- 
lated from Beni’s special manual for France, which is 
connected with a special chart. But still, the tables 


92 


FRANCE. 


should not be taught without the comment of some 
book. 

For children, there are Sir Walter Scott’s Tales of a 
Grandfather about France, and Mrs. Markham’s His- 
tory of France. For adults, there is Michelet’s His- 
tory of France, translated ; Philip de Comines’s History 
of Louis XI., translated ; Carlyle’s History of the 
French' Revolution, (a series of pictures which seem to 
make us spectators of those wonderful events, while 
we are made to understand them by an accompanying 
choral song, as it were, of the author’s all-comprehend- 
ing spirit, which does justice alike to all parties ; and 
while it may not awaken the love that springs from 
approbation and admiration, fails not to awaken that 
which comes from pity for the folly, the weakness, 
the sin of all concerned;) and Hazlitt’s Life of Napo- 
leon Bonaparte. 

But those who desire entirely to understand the his- 
tory of the French, in all its detail, should study, as a 
foundation, two works not yet translated into English ; 
one is rare — LiHistoire des Gaulois, par Amadee 
Thierry, (a different book from La Gaule of the same 
author;) and the other is JLHistoire des Francais , 
by Sismondi, which contains within its many volumes 
almost a history of Europe besides, written in the spirit 
of humanity, and with the greatest good sense. It is 
a work which ought to be rendered into English. 


List of the Kings of France. 


A. D. 

481 Clovis. 

511 First partition. 
558 Clotaire. 

561 Second partition. 
613 Clotaire II. 

628 Dagobert I. 

638 Third partition. 
671 Childeric II. 

691 Clovis III. 


A. D. 


695 Childebert III. 
711 Dagobert III. 
715 Chilperic II. 
717 Clotaire IV. 
720 Thierry IV. 
742 Childeric III. 
752 Pepin. 


768 Charlemagne and 
Carloman. 


FRANCE. 


93 


814 Louis I., the Gentle. 
840 Charles I., the Bald. 
877 Louis II. 

879 Louis III. 

882 Carloman. 

885 Charles II., the Fat. 
888 Eudes. 

896 Charles HI., the Sim- 
ple. 

922 Robert I. 

923 Raoul. 

936 Louis IV., Beyond 
the Sea. 

954 Lothaire. 

986 Louis V., Do-nothing. 

987 Hugh Capet. 

996 Robert II. 

1031 Henrv I. 

1060 Philip I. 

1108 Louis VI. 

1137 Louis VII. 

1180 Philip II. 

1223 Louis VIII. 

1226 Louis IX. 

1270 Philip III. 

1285 Philip IV. 

1314 Louis X. 

1316 John I. 


Philip Y. 
1322 Charles IV. 
1328 Philip VI. 
1350 John II. 

1364 Charles V. 
1380 Charles VI. 
1422 Charles VII. 
1461 Louis XI. 
1483 Charles VIII. 
1498 Louis XII. 
1515 Francis I. 
1547 Henry II. 

1559 Francis II. 

1560 Charles IX. 
1574 Henry III. 
1589 Henry IV. 
1610 Louis XIII. 
1643 Louis XIV. 
1715 Louis XV. 
1774 Louis XVI. 
1789 Revolution. 
1792 Republic. 
1795 Directory. 
1799 Consulate. 
1804 Napoleon. 
1814 Louis XVIII. 
1824 Charles X. 
1830 Louis Philip. 


(Gallic dates are emerald green ; French dates, blue ; 
Norman, olive green.) 


The original Gauls were Kelts, and this is the stock 
of the million in France to this day. But the king- 
dom owes its name to the Franks, a confederation of 
many German tribes, principally the Salii and the 
Ripuarii. 

They were first heard of in history A. D. 241. They 
began their incursions into Gaul in 255 ; and in 486 
their king, Clovis, at Soissons, victorious over Sygarius, 


94 


FRANCE. 


ended the Roman domination in Gaul, Clovis himself 
embracing Christianity. In 507, he conquered Tou- 
louse, Bourdeaux, and Aquitaine, driving the Visigoths 
out of France. In 511, his sons conquered Thuringia, 
Suabia, Bavaria ; in 534, Burgundy. The famous 
queen of Neustria, Fredigonda, died in 597 ; and in 
613, her rival and. enemy, Brunhilda, queen of Aus- 
trasia. In 628 was instituted the mayorship of the 
palace. The mayor was the real reigning power 
during all the times of the Faineant (Do-nothing) kings. 
In 687, Pepin d’Heristal, mayor of the three kingdoms, 
began to assume openly this power. His son Charles 
Martel was mayor in 714 ; and in 732, he set a boun- 
dary to the incursions of the Saracens into Europe, by 
his victory over them at Poictiers. In 752, Pepin the 
Short, Charles Martel’s son, founded the Carlovingian 
dynasty of French kings. In 755, by his wars in 
Italy, he gained the ability to confer on the pope the 
exarchate of Ravenna, and so laid the foundation for 
the temporal power of the papal see. His son Charle- 
magne married the daughter of the king of Lombardy 
in 769, and conquered him in 773, ending the kingdom 
of Lombardy in 774. In 778, he defeated the Sara- 
cens at Roncesvalles, in Spain ; in 778, subdued the 
Saxons ; in 779, the Avars ; and in 800 was crowned 
Emperor of the West, by the pope, over domains 
that stretched from the Ebro to the Vistula and Theiss ; 
from the North Sea, and the Baltic, to the Adriatic and 
Mediterranean. This great empire was divided by 
Charlemagne’s successor, Louis Debonnaire, in 840, 
and France became independent under Charles the 
Bald, by the treaty of Verdun, in 843. The year 887 is 
the date of the origin of fiefs. 

The Normans had been overrunning France from 
841. This was the same people that infested the 
coasts of England, and gave so much trouble to the 
Anglo-Saxon kings, under the name of Danes. They 
came from Denmark and Norway. In 886, they 
besieged Paris, but were defeated by Count Eudes, for 


FRANCE. 


95 


that very service afterwards made king, in place of 
Charles the Fat. But in 912, Charles the Simple gave 
the dukedom of Normandy to Rollo, who was bap- 
tized under the name of Robert , and promised to 
defend the northern frontier from further depredations 
of his race. In 912, we find his grandson, Richard 
the Fearless, one of the twelve peers that support the 
throne of Hugh Capet — the others being the Dukes 
of Burgundy and Aquitaine ; the Counts of Cham- 
pagne, Flanders, and Toulouse ; the Archbishops of 
Rheims and Sens ; the Bishops of Noyon, Beauvais, 
Chalons, and Langres. 

At that time, the whole domain of the crown Avas 
the Isle of France, Laon, and Orleannais. In 1095, 
Philip I. added Berri, and in 1206, Normandy, Maine, 
Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, and Limousin; in 1216, Ver- 
mandois and Valois ; in 1271, Languedoc, Toulouse, 
and Auvergne, came by inheritance to the crown ; but 
Venaissin was given up to Pope Gregory X. In 1284, 
Champagne and La Brie went to the crown, with the 
hand of Joanne of Navarre. In 1310, Lyonnais was 
united; in 1349, Dauphiny and Montpellier; in 1380, 
Ponthieu ; in 1453, Guienne and part of Gascony ; in 
1477, Burgundy ; in 1481, Provence ; in 1523, Bour- 
bonnais ; in 1532, Bretagne ; in 1589, Bearn : in 1648, 
Alsace ; in 1659, Artois, Roussillon, and Nivernais ; 
in 1678, Tranche Comte and Flanders; in 1697, Stras- 
bourg ; in 1766, Lorraine; in 1769, Corsica; in 1791, 
Venaissin and Avignon. The present France is divided 
into eighty-seven departments, including Algiers. 

Having formed the present France, we will go back 
to some other important events in its history. 

A. D. 1095 was the Council of Clermont where 
the first crusade was planned. In 1108, Louis VI., 
who favored the interests of the commons, had war 
with his vassals. In 1147, Louis VIII. headed a second 
crusade. In 1152, he was divorced from Eleanor of 
Aquitaine, who married Henry II., (Plantagenet,) and 
carried her native inheritance *vith her to the crown 


36 


FRANCE. 


of England, the seed of future wars. In 1190, Philip 
II., Augustus, went on the third crusade. In 1202, 
Baldwin, Count of Flanders, went on the fourth cru- 
sade. In 1209, the crusade against the Albigenses 
began. In 1214, the battle of Bouvines was gained 
over Philip Augustus by the coalition of the Emperor 
Otho with the Count of Flanders and others. In 1217, 
Louis Outre de Mer (VIII.) was called, for a short time, 
to the throne of England. In 1224, he made war with 
the English in Guienne ; and in 1226, with the Albi- 
genses, which lasted three years. In 1248, St. Louis 
went on the seventh crusade, in which he was made 
captive, but ransomed. In 1270, St. Louis went upon 
the eighth and last crusade, on which he died. In 
1282, the Sicilian Vespers brought the power of the 
French to an end in Sicily, which surrendered itself 
to Peter III. of Arragon, whose claim the French did 
not acknowledge for thirteen years-. In 1294, the 
French took Bourdeaux from the English. In 1337, 
the war with England began, by Edward III. of Eng- 
land, who disputed the title of Philip VI. of France. 
In 1346 was the battle of Cressy, where first fire-arms 
were used. In 1347, the famous siege of Calais, (de- 
scribed by Froissart.) In 1358, the insurrection of the 
Jacquerie. In 1415, the battle of Agincourt, against 
the English, was lost. In 1428, the treaty of Troyes 
declared that Henry V. of England should inherit the 
throne of France. In 1429, Joan of Arc crowned 
Charles VIII. at Rheims ; and, in 1453, the French 
drove the English out of all France except Calais. In 
1468, Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, took Louis XI. 
prisoner. In 1477, Charles the Bold died, and Mary, 
his daughter, married Maximilian of Austria, carrying 
to him as dowry, Franche Comte, Flanders, and Ar- 
tois, while the rest of Burgundy remained united to 
France. In 1491, Charles VIII. married Anne of Bre- 
tagne. In 1494, he conquered Naples, but lost it the 
next year. In 1499, Louis XIII., late Duke of Orleans, 
divorced his wife, Jeanne of France, and married the 


FRANCE. 


97 


widow of Charles VIII. In 1501, he conquered Na- 
ples, and lost it in 1505. In 1508, he was party to 
the league of Cambray against Venice. In 1512, Gas- 
ton de Foix conquered the Holy League formed against 
Louis XII. In 1514, Louis married Mary, sister of Hen- 
ry VIII. of England. In 1515, Francis I. conquered 
Milan ; in 1525, was made captive by Charles V., at 
Pavia ; in 1529, renounced Milan and Naples, by the 
treaty of Cambray; in 1544, by the treaty of Cressy, 
agreed to suppress the reformation. In 1551, Henry 
II. made the first edict against the Calvinists. In 
1558, Calais was taken from the English. In 1559, 
Coligny took the lead of the reform party. In 1560, 
Catharine de Medici became regent for her son Charles 
IX. In 1570, the treaty of St. Germain gave amnesty 
to the Calvinists. In 1572 occurred the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew ; in 1573, the siege of Rochelle, from 
which Henry of Anjou, afterwards Henry III. of 
France, was called to be king of Poland. In 1576, the 
peace of Beaulieu, favorable to the Protestants, pro- 
voked the Holy League of the Guises. In 1593, the 
States General met to elect a king, and Henry IV. de- 
clared himself converted to Catholicism, which ended 
the war. In 1598 was proclaimed the edict of Nantes. 
In 1609, Heury became mediator between the insur- 
gent reformers of Flanders and Spain. In 1610, 
he was assassinated. In 1614, on occasion of the 
revolt of the grandees against the regent, Mary de 
Medici, the last States General (before that of 1789) 
was assembled. In 1624, Richelieu became prime 
minister. In 1628, Rochelle was taken by Richelieu, 
and Protestantism overthrown in France ; but, in 1635, 
he took the Protestant side in the Thirty Years’ war 
of Germany. In 1648, the war of the Fronde began 
against Mazarin, which ended with his triumph in 
1653. In 1661, Mazarin died, and Louis XIV. began 
to reign by himself. In 1667, his war with Spain be- 
gan, lor the possession of the Low Countries; in 1668, 
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended it. In 1672, his 
9 


98 


FRANCE. 


war with Holland began ; terminated, in 1678, by the 
peace of Nimeguen with Spain, and, in 1679, with 
Germany. In 1685, Louis revoked the edict of Nantes. 
In 1688, he made war with England in favor of James 
II., and consequently with Austria and Holland. In 
1690, victories at Fleurus, Stalforde ; in 1692, at 
Steenkerke. In 1697 was the peace of Ryswick ; but, 
in 1702, England, Austria, and Holland, coalesced to 
oppose the succession of the Bourbons to the throne 
of Spain. This war was finished bv the peace of 
Utrecht, in 1713. Louis XIY. died in'l715. In 1718, 
paper money was emitted according to the plans of 
Law. In 1723, the Regent Duke of Orleans died ; 
Louis XV. took the government, and Bourbon was 
prime minister. In 1725, Louis XV. married Maria 
Leszczynski, daughter of the displaced king of Poland ; 
and, in 1726, Floury became prime minister. In 1741, 
Louis XV. declared for the Elector of Bavaria, (Charles 
VII.,) as emperor, against Maria Theresa. In 1756, 
he took part, however, against Frederic II., in the Seven 
Years’ war. In 1761 occurred the family compact 
of the Bourbons. In 1764, the Jesuits, were abolished 
in France. In 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 
Corsica, two months after it was united to France. 
In 1787 was the convocation of the Notables. In 
1789, the States General assembled, and the Bastille 
was taken. In 1792 was the National Convention, war 
with Prussia and Austria, and massacre of September. 
In 1793, death of Louis XVI. ; war of Vendee. In 1794, 
death of Robespierre. In 1795, Bonaparte saved the 
Convention. In 1796, republic was victorious on 
the Rhine and in Italy ; in 1798, in Egypt; in 1799, 
Messena checked Suwarrow. In 1800, battles of Ma- 
rengo, Hochstadt, Hohenlinden, gained. In 1802, 
Legion of Honor instituted. In 1804, Code Napoleon 
published; death of Duke d’Enghien. In 1805, Napo- 
leon proclaimed king of Italy ; war with Austria and 
Russia; victory at Austerlitz ; treaty of Presburg ; 
acquisition of Tyrol and .Venetian states. In 1806, 


GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 


99 


Napoleon founds the kingdoms of Wurtemburg, Bava- 
ria, Holland ; protects the Confederation of the Rhine ; 
makes war with Russia and Prussia ; is victorious at 
Jena. In 1807, he makes the treaty of Tilsit; founds 
the grand duchy of Warsaw, and the kingdom of 
Westphalia. In 1808, war with Spain ; Joseph is 
made king in place of Charles IV., who abdicated. 
In 1809, war with Austria ; peace of Schoenbrunn ; 
acquisition of Illyria. In 1810, Napoleon divorces 
Josephine, and marries Maria Louisa. In 1812, war 
with Russia. In 1814, France is invaded by the allies ; 
Napoleon goes to Elba. In 1815, revolution of the 
hundred days; battle of Waterloo. In 1821, death of 
Napoleon. In 1830, revolution of July. In 1848, 
revolution of February. 


GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

The history of the British Islands is indispensable to 
the American, since they are the mother country of the 
largest portion of our people, and of our institutions 
and laws. An Encyclopaedia of this history, as indeed 
of almost the history of the modern world, is to be 
found in the Pictorial History of England, which 
ought to be republished in this country, in a cheap 
form, it being the history not merely or mainly of wars 
and diplomacy, but of religion, laws, arts, sciences, 
customs; in short, of whatever makes up the life of 
man. Another admirable work, with which to begin 
this department of our subject, is Turner’s History of 
the Anglo-Saxons, in whose Introduction and Appendix 
is a history of the old British. The history of the 
Anglo-Saxons’ invasion and settlement of the island, 
their conversion to Christianity, their wars, and final 
union under Egbert, is accompanied with a history of 
their laws, customs, and religion, both before and after 
their conversion ; and gives a kind of insight into the 
souls of the Anglo-Saxon kings, which is rarely found 


100 


GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 


in historical works. Especially are we made acquainted 
with the inner as well as outer life of Alfred the 
Great, than whose is no nobler name in the annals of 
humanity. He proves that a man may be so truly 
great, as not to be harmed by being a king. Turner 
has also written the history of England through the 
reign of Elizabeth ; but perhaps it may be as well to 
take the period of the Norman conquest and kings 
from the work of Thierry, whose style is more beau- 
tiful than Turner’s. Macaulay’s History almost joins 
upon Turner ; and with that to review and revise, the 
student may venture to fill up the interval between 
Turner and Macaulay with Hume, whose prejudices 
make him an unfit guide, however, with regard to 
opinions. Sir Walter Scott’s History of Scotland 
should be read immediately after Turner’s Elizabeth, 
and Thomas Moore’s History of Ireland should be read, 
as early as the time of the conquest of Ireland. 

For children, Sir Walter Scott’s Tales of a Grand- 
father about Scotland, and Mrs. Markham’s History of 
England, are admirable introductions, and calculated to 
give a taste for historical study. Shakspeare’s Plays 
are very valuable illustrations of English history ; but 
care must be taken to avoid the mistakes caused by 
his anachronisms. No such care is necessary in read- 
ing the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. 

The old British, Irish, and Scotch were of Celtic 
race, and were invaded by the Romans in the century 
before Christ, who established a province on the island. 
But in the decline of the empire, the necessity of 
defending the heart of their dominions compelled them 
to withdraw their legions, A. D. 426. The native 
inhabitants, however, were divided under many rulers, 
and the British were invaded by the Piets and Scots, 
to oppose whom they invited into their island the Saxon 
pirates, Hengist and Horsa, who received for their 
recompense the small island of Thanet. But this was 
only a stimulus to the great invasion of Britain by sev- 
eral different tribes of Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. 


A. D. 

450 

477 

495 

530 

542 

537 

530 

547 

597 

607 

633 

721 

744 

823 

836 

856 

860 

866 

871 

879 

901 

924 

941 

946 

955 

959 

975 

978 

016 

no 


GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 


101 


Hengist conquers Kent. (2, 5.) 

Ella conquers and settles Sussex. (2, 5.) 
Cerdic conquers and settles Wessex. (2, 5.) 
Battles of Llongbroth, Llawen, and Bath. (1.) 
Death of the British Prince Arthur. (9.) 

East Anglia conquered and settled. (2, 5.) 
Essex conquered and settled. (2, 5.) 

Ida conquers Northumbria; divides it at his 
death into Deira and Bernicia. 

Ethelbert of Kent accepts Christianity. 

Bangor destroyed by the Saxons. 

Cadwalion’s victories and defeat. 

Ina of Wessex abdicates and goes to Rome. 
Offa of Mercia corresponds with Charlemagne. 
Egbert of Wessex conquers Kent and Mercia. 
Ethelwulf, who is deposed by his sons. 
Ethelbald. 

Ethelbert. 

Ethelred. 

Alfred, who flies before the Danes in 878. 

He treats with Godrun ; expels Hastings in 
897. 

Edward the Elder, chosen by the nobles. 
Athelstan has relations with France, Bretagne, 
Germany, and Norway. 

Edmund the Elder ; assassinated in 946. 

Edred, who has war with Eric. 

Edwin struggles with the monk Dunstan. 
Edgar, who supports Dunstan. 

Edward the Martyr, crowned by Dunstan. 
Ethelred II. invaded by Danes in 980. 
Edmund Ironside, who is assassinated, and 
Canute, the Dane, chosen king. 

Harold Harefoot succeeds his father, Canute. 
H ardicanute succeeds his brother Harold. Mac- 
beth murders Duncan I. of Scotland. 

Edward the Confessor restores the Saxon line. 
Earl Godwin rebels against him. 

9 # 


102 


GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 


1057 Malcolm of Scotland, who marries Margaret of 
England ill 1068. 

1066 Competition between Harold, son of Godwin, 
and William of Normandy, who conquers at 
the battle of Hastings, where Harold II. falls. 


Comparative Bates of 

England and Scotland. 


1087 William II. 

1095 First crusade. 

1100 Henry I. 

1135 Stephen. 

1154 Henry II. 

1171 Becket murdered at 
Canterbury. 

1189 Richard I. 

1192 Richard defeats Sa- 
ladin at Ascalon. 

1199 John. 

1215 Magna Charta signed 

by King John. 

1216 Henry III. 

1264 Deputies of boroughs 
go to parliament. 

1272 Edward I. 

1292 Edward makes John 
Baliol king of 
Scotland. 

1298 He defeats the re- 
gent, William Wal- 
lace. 

1307 Edward II. 

1327 Edward III. 

1346 Edward III. and 
Black Prince at 
Cressy, and at 

1356 Poictiers, defeat the 
French. 

1377 Richard II, 


1093 Donald Bane. 

1095 Duncan II. 

1098 Edgar. 

1107 Alexander I. 

1153 Malcolm IY. 

1165 William the Lion. 


1214 Alexander II. 

1249 Alexander III. 

1263 Alexander defeats the 
Norwegians. 

1290 Interregnum. 

1292 John Baliol. 

1304 The regent, William 
Wallace, delivered 
to Edward I. and 
executed. 

1306 Robert Bruce. 

1314 Battle of Bannock- 
burn ] Bruce vic- 
torious. 

1329 David II. 


1370 Robert II. 


GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 


103 


1380 WicklifFe translates 
the Scriptures. 
1399 Henry IV. 

1402 Victory over Scots at 

Halidon Hill. 

1403 Battle of Shrews- 

bury ; Hotspur is 
killed. 

1413 Henry V. 

1415 Henry V. defeats the 
French at Ag in- 
court. 

1422 Henry VI. 

1455 Battle of St. Albans 
dethrones Henry. 
1461 Edward IV. 

1470 Henry VI. restored 

to the throne. 

1471 Battles of Burnet and 

Tewksbury. Ed- 
ward IV. restored. 
Prince Edward 
of Lancaster and 
Henry VI. die. 
1475 Edward IV. invades 
France. 

1483 Edward V., mur- 
dered by his uncle 
Richard III., who 
becomes king. 
1485 Henry VII. ends the 
war of the Roses, 
at the battle of 
Bosworth, and by 
marrying Eliza- 
beth of York. 

1509 Henry VIII. 

1513 Battle of Flodden 
Field. 


1390 Robert III. 

/ 


1406 James I, 

1437 James II. 

1460 James III. 


1488 James IV. 


1513 James V., married to 
Mary of Guise. 


104 


GHEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 


1540 Dissolution of mon- 
asteries in Eng- 
land. 

1547 Edward VI. 

1553 Mary. Protestant 
martyrs of Eng- 
land. 

1558 Elizabeth. 


1542 Mary, married to 
Francis II. 

1561 Returns to Scotland. 

1567 James VI. 

1569 Assassination of 
Murray, Regent 
of Scotland. 


1580 

1587 

1598 

1600 

1603 

1605 

1620 

1625 

1641 

1642 

1643 

1649 

1650 

1651 
1654 


1658 

1660 

1666 

1667 

1678 

1683 

1685 

1688 

1689 

1690 

1692 

1693 
1701 


Sir Francis Drake sails round the world. 
Beheading of Mary, queen of Scots. 

Tyrone’s rebellion in Ireland. 

East India Company established. Earl of Essex 
beheaded. 

James I. unites England and Scotland. 
Gunpowder plot. 

The English settle at Madras, East Indies. 
Charles I. English settle in Barbadoes. 

Irish rebellion. Strafford executed. 

Battle of Edgehill. 

Archbishop Laud executed. 

Charles I. beheaded. Commonwealth. 

Battle of Dunbar. Montrose executed. 

Battle of Worcester, won by Cromwell. 

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector. Admiral 
Penn conquers Jamaica. 

Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector. 
Restoration of monarchy. Charles II. 
Plague in London, ended by the great fire. 
Peace of Breda. 

Habeas Corpus Act. 

Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney executed, 
James II. Monmouth beheaded. 

Revolution completed. James II. abdicates. 
William of Orange and Mary Stuart. 

Battle of the Boyne ; James II. defeated. 

Battle of La Hogue. Massacre of Glencoe. 
Bank of England incorporated. 

Death of James II. at St. Germain. 


1702 

1703 

1704 

1706 

1708 

1709 

1714 

1715 

1727 

1744 

1745 

1746 

1760 

1762 

1775 

1783 

1798 

1800 

1801 

1803 

1805 

1806 

1811 

1812 

1814 

1820 

1829 

1830 

1837 

1840 


GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 


105 


Anne Stuart. War with France. 

Gibraltar taken by English Admiral Rooke. 
Marlborough gains battle of Blenheim. 
Marlborough gains battle of Ramillies, 

And, with Eugene, the battle of Oudenarde, 
And the battle of Malplaquet. 

George I., great grandson of James I. 

Battle of Sheriffmuir, in Scotland. 

George II., in the course of two years, makes 
an alliance with Denmark, Holland, France, 
and Spain. 

War with France 

Quadruple alliance. Battle of Fontenoy. 
Victory of the English at Culloden, in Scotland. 
George III. (Montreal and Quebec taken.) 
Peace of Fontainebleau. 

War with the American colonies. 

Final loss of the American colonies. 

Irish Rebellion. Battle of the Nile. 

Union of Britain and Ireland. 

Battle of Copenhagen, gained by Nelson. 

War with France. 

Battle of Trafalgar ; death of Nelson. 

British abolish the slave trade. 

Prince of Wales appointed regent. 

War with the United States of America. 
General peace in Europe. Allies in London. 
Congress of Vienna. Peace with United 
States ratified in 1815. 

George IV. 

Catholic emancipation. 

William IV. 

Victoria. 

Emancipation of the West India slaves. 


106 


AMERICA. 


AMERICA. 

If all the American dates that are known should be 
inserted on the Chart, they would fill up the three last 
centuries. But for the purposes of universal history, 
only a few are selected. 

Besides this, it is possible for any instructor who 
pleases to get some representations of the three last 
centuries, and devote them entirely to American dates. 
By means of such a manual as Holmes’s Annals, or as 
the chronological tables of Mrs. Willard’s History of 
the United States, this could easily be done. 

But, at any rate, it is desirable that even when the 
dates on this Chart of Universal History are inserted, 
some study of American history should accompany it. 
There are several school histories of the United States — 
Mrs. Willard’s, Mr. Frost’s, and others. More elabo- 
rate works on America are Irving’s Life of Columbus, 
and his Lives of the Companions of Columbus; Pres- 
cott’s Conquest of Mexico, and Conquest of Peru ; A 
History of the New England Colonies, in German, by 
Talvi , which ought to be translated into English ; 
Botta’s History of the War of Independence ; and, when 
it is completed, Mr. Bancroft’s History of the United 
States. Mr. Bancroft’s History is also to be consulted 
concerning dates, being the most accurate of any in 
this particular. In one volume of Marshall’s Life of 
Washington is the best history of the formation of the 
Federal Constitution. Marshall’s Life of Washington 
is a fine one ; but Sparks gives the personal history 
more minutely. Sparks’s Life of Franklin, and his 
Library of American Biography, are also sources of 
interesting information. Indeed, it is out of the com- 
piler’s power to name all the valuable sources of infor- 
mation upon American history. Still, another book in 
this department is a desideratum ; such a one, for 
instance, as such a genius as Hawthorne’s could write, 
in which all the important characters that have figured 


AMERICA. 


107 


upon this continent should live and act, as do the 
Greeks and Romans in the pages of Herodotus, and 
Livy. 


A. D. 

1492 

1498 


Columbus discovers Bahama Islands. (8.) 

He discovers the continent of South America. 


1499 

1508 

1519 

1532 

1540 

1607 

1613 

1620 

1627 

1655 

1664 

1675 

1717 

1754 

1756 

1760 

1770 

1774 

1775 

1776 

1777 

1778 

1780 

1781 

1783 | 
1789 


Amerigo Vespucc.io gives name to America. (8.) 
Negro slaves first imported into America. (6.) 
Cortez commences conquering Mexico. (2.) 
Pizarro commences conquering Peru. (2.) 
Cartier makes first permanent settlement, in Can- 
ada, of the French. (5.) 

First permanent settlement of the English at 
Jamestown, Virginia. (5.) 

First Dutch settlement on the Hudson. (5.) 
Puritan Pilgrims first settle in Plymouth. (5.) 
Swedes and Finns settle on the Delaware. (5.) 
Dutch conquer the Swedes and Filins. (2.) 
New Netherlands surrendered to the English ; 

becomes New York. (5.) 

Indian war of “ King Philip.” 

New Orleans founded by the French. 
Washington’s mission to the French on the Ohio. 
The “ Old French war,” which lasts seven years. 
French surrender Canada to the British. 

Boston massacre by British troops. 

First Continental Congress at Philadelphia. 
Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. 
Declaration of Independence ; Washington, gen- 
eral-in-chief of the American army. 

Battles of Bennington and Saratoga. 

Battle of Monmouth. French alliance. 

Arnold’s treason. (8.) Andre’s execution. (9.) 
Battles of Cowpens, Eutaw Springs, and York- 
town. Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. 
Independence acknowledged by Great Britain. 
Federal Constitution. Washington, Presi- 
dent. John Adams, Vice-President. 


108 


AMEKICA. 


1794 

1797 

1799 

1800 
1801 
1803 
1807 

1809 

1810 

1812 

1815 


1817 

1819 

1821 


1822 

1823 

1824 

1825 

1826 
1829 

1832 

1833 

1835 

1837 

1841 

1845 

1846 
1849 


Mr. Jay’s treaty with Great Britain. 

John Adams, President. 

Washington’s Death. 

Seat of government transferred to Washington. 
Thomas Jefferson, President. 

He purchases Louisiana for $15,000,000. 

Henri Christophe, first king of Hayti. 

James Madison, President. (5.) 

Revolutions of South America ; Venezuela and 
New Granada become independent. 

United States war with Great Britain. 

Battle of New Orleans.' Peace with Great Brit- 
ain. (6.) Buenos Ayres becomes independ- 
ent. (6.) 

Chili becomes independent. (5.) 

James Monroe, President. (5.) 

Republic of Colombia. Bolivar, President. 
Florida ceded to the United States. 

Peru and Guatimala become independent. Em- 
peror grants representation to Brazil. 

Missouri admitted. Compromise of slavery. 
Brazil and Mexico independent. 

United States recognize independence of South 
American republics. 

Lafayette’s visit to America. 

John Quincy Adams, President. Upper Peru 
becomes independent, as Bolivia. 

Death of Jefferson and Adams, July 4. 

Andrew Jackson, President. 

Black Hawk’s war. Seminole treaty. 

South Carolina nullification ; Jackson’s procla- 
mation. 

Florida war begins, and lasts seven years. 
Martin Van Buren, President. 

William Henry Harrison, President. Death. 
James Knox Polk, President. 

Mexican war. 

Zachary Taylor, President. 


APPENDIX. 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 

ADDRESSED TO THE MATURE STUDENT. 

All the Caucasian races seem to have had some 
method of preserving a lasting memorial of themselves. 
In Egypt and Ethiopia, they painted their life, or 
carved or built it in stone ; and so in Persepolis, and 
Nineveh, and ancient Bactria, said to be so rich in 
ruins. In Babylon, they committed it to gem cylin- 
ders, or signets, of which Herodotus tells us every 
Babylonian had one, and which are found by myriads 
among the ruins. The use that may be made of 
these is seen in Landseer’s Sabaean Researches, which 
show, that on these signets were engraved the horo- 
scope of the owner, in a symbolic representation of the 
stars and sun, revealing the ideas of the early worship- 
pers of the “ host of heaven,” and giving surprising 
lights for the historical critic. But besides monuments, 
there were oral traditions ; a wonderful poetry, asso- 
ciated with every mountain and valley of Europe ; and 
a few books — it may surprise many readers, however, 
to know how few. 

The oldest author who wrote of contemporary his- 
tory, that we have, is Zoroaster, whose precise date is 
uncertain. The next is Moses ; but he did not live 
till the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries before 
Christ, and his antediluvian and immediately postdilu- 
vian history is the transcript of some early unknown 
10 


110 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


author or authors, as may also be seen from the style 
of the expression : the Genesis, except in a few pas- 
sages. being of an older dialect than Moses’ own 
composition. The next extant authors are Homer and 
Hesiod, of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and the 
next, Herodotus, of the fifth. The historians of Rome 
did not live till the first and, second centuries before 
Christ. 

This want of written documents makes the precise 
dates of early time difficult of determination. Ou our 
Chart, only twenty-five centuries before Christ are 
given ; because there is so much dispute with respect 
to the earliest ages. Moses does not settle it ; for there 
is found a difference of three thousand years, as to the 
time before Solomon, in the old Hebrew, the Samari- 
tan, and the Septuagint versions of the Scriptures. 
Every new discovery, as well as Professor Henne’s new 
criticism upon the dynasties of Manetho, favors the 
computation which allows most centuries. We, how- 
ever, begin where there is little or no dispute. 

The theory of Henne is, that the human race was 
created upon the earth in five great varieties, the white 
race being indigenous to the north-western portion of 
the great eastern continent — Europe. At a very 
remote period, — so remote that what is now the Medi- 
terranean Sea was a large, fruitful valley, with a river 
running through it, — a branch of the white race dwelt 
in great magnificence and activity in this valley, 
bounded on the north by the Alps, and on the south 
by the Atlas Mountains. They left material traces in 
what is called the Cyclopean architecture. 

After many ages, he supposes this early civilization 
to have grown corrupt, and that the nation fell into disso- 
lution ; and, simultaneous with this, a great geological 
change took place, and the Mediterranean Sea was 
produced, fragments of the people escaping upon the 
mountains, in every direction, each group carrying 
with it the impression of itself being the only surviving 
seed of the race. But besides this catastrophe, some 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


Ill 


great revolutions and emigrations took place, and the 
white race seated itself at the branching of the Nile, 
and at the sources of the Indus, from which, as foci, 
civilization spread, in the one case northward on the 
Nile, and in the other case, south-west upon the Tigris 
and Euphrates, south-east upon the Ganges, and far 
over to the north-east in China. Henne supposes the 
traditionary literature of nations, even the Hebrew, 
belonged to this white race alone, which went into 
Asia and Africa, from Europe, in the first instance ; 
and that Adam, Menu, Menes, Mason, Minos, Mannus, 
Manus, all refer to the same fact, whether it were an 
individual man, or the first state of the race personified. 
The author supposes that he has fairly and rigidly 
deduced this theory, from an impartial study of the 
traditions recorded in history ; a reasonable explanation 
of the myths of all the old religions, including the 
antediluvian ages of the Hebrew Bible, and a true 
criticism of Manetho’s dynasties, compared with other 
historical monuments; and that an argument a 'posteri- 
ori is to be deduced, from the aid which this theory 
gives to the reconciliation of a multitude of traditions, 
long believed to be innately contradictory. 

The original inhabitants of the Atlantic valley, as 
we may, perhaps, best call the bed of the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, were, he believes, of the Italian stamp; and 
he supposes the Pelasgians were this race, tending to 
art and external life. Upon this decaying people, he 
supposes a great emigration, of a more purely intellec- 
tual northerly white race, to have come over the high- 
land of Europe, and to have swept down the Asiatic 
valley, even to distant Java. He supposes the shep- 
herd kings of Egypt to have belonged to this latter 
race. The purest type of it, perhaps, was the Hellenic, 
especially the Heraclidic race. He leaves room to 
suppose that this people had arrived at civilization 
simultaneously with the Pelasgian races ; and that it 
was of a higher, more personal cast, in which the 
freedom of the individual was regarded more than 


112 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


any production of his hands or mind; consequently, 
that wherever it appeared, it bore all before it. It was 
the Olympian gods overcoming the Titanic ; Apollo 
mastering Mercury ; the Heraclidic subjecting the 
Pelasgic races. It was the upper castes of Ethiopia 
and of India, and the Magi of Persia and Media ; the 
Chaldeans of Babylon, the patriarch of the Hebrew 
race. He supposes the bulk of all these nations was 
at best Pelasgic, but sometimes merely the nomads 
of races originally inferior to the white, as in India, 
Ethiopia, and Egypt. 

The portion of the Chart representing the twenty- 
fifth century before Christ, indicates, by the coloring 
with which it is painted, that the Chinese, the Indians, 
the Arabians, the Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, 
Egyptians, and Ethiopians, were at that time flourishing 
in great consolidated nations. Of this there is extant 
proof ; for in this century the father of Abraham is said 
to have removed from Ur of the Chaldees, a city in 
Babylonia ; and we know that Babylon was, therefore, 
in existence, and not in its original Arabian state, but 
dominated by the Chaldeans, who came upon it from 
the north. 

The character of this Chaldaean dominion proves 
that they came from some country highly civilized ; 
for, as soon as they came, they began the astronomical 
tables found by Alexander in Babylon, when he entered 
it, 330 B. C., which already comprised three thousand 
years of observations taken in that latitude. That 
Zoroaster, and consequently a great Persian empire, 
was anterior to the Babylonian, has been demonstrated 
by Heeren, in the first volume of his Researches ( Ideen ) 
upon Asia. But Zoroaster also had a great antiquity 
behind him, and instructed his royal pupil by the history 
of a more ancient Persia, whose first king lived, like 
Adam, a thousand years, (if Djemschid was not rather 
a dynasty of kings than a man.) On the other hand, 
according to Moses, when Abraham, the son of Terar, 
went into Lower Egypt, he found a consolidated mon- 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


113 


archy. This throws the antiquity of Upper Egypt, and 
of Ethiopia, far back ; for the researches of Champol- 
lion, Bunsen, Heeren, and others, have demonstrated 
that Lower Egypt was civilized subsequently to Upper 
Egypt ; and that Upper Egypt (the great and ancient 
Thebes) was a colony from Ethiopian Meroe, and that 
Meroe was itself a colony of priests, of Caucasian race, 
which, at some early period, arrived there by sea, 
always preserving their ship as their most sacred em- 
blem. Again, the peculiar institution of castes has 
only been found in Egypt, Ethiopia, Brahminical India, 
and the tradition of the same in Zoroaster’s Bactria ; 
for, according to Zoroaster, Gustasp’s kingdom was 
composed of three orders, corresponding to the three 
upper castes of Egypt, Ethiopia, and India. Is it not 
very reasonable to suppose, that when that invasion of 
Turan upon the Iran of Gustasp took place, of which 
Zoroaster was always warning his royal pupil, it swept 
the old nation entirely out of this locality, and that one 
part of them emigrated upon the Ganges, another into 
Ethiopia by sea, perhaps a colony of priests into 
Babylon, as Chaldeans ; and that the Magians of Medea 
were of the same origin ? It is a fact worthy of note, 
that, in Persia itself, there was, in all that period of 
history known to the Greeks, a great aversion to the 
constitution of society into castes, and that the upper 
race of Persia was a cavalier race, a military nobility, 
bearing the same relation to the lower people that the 
German races do to the Celtic races of France, Spain, 
and Britain. 

The Chart has no indications of the Pelasgic race 
till the twentieth and nineteenth centuries before 
Christ ; and then only the vague one of the blue tint 
upon the whole representations of these centuries. 
This is a compromise between the common view and 
the doubts of the compiler of this manual. The 
authors of L? Art de Verifier les Dates put the origin of 
the several Pelasgian kingdoms of Greece in these 
centuries, and even give the very years of their foun- 
10 * 


114 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


dation ; but nothing is more uncertain. According to 
Henne, the Pelasgians preceded all other nations, and 
it was to them that the antediluvian traditions recorded 
by Moses belonged. The ages to which the origin of 
the Pelasgian kingdoms of Greece is referred, are the 
ages of their decay, which were signalized probably by 
wanderings, and divisions, and new settlements. In 
the early traditions of Europe, all the nations seem to 
have been in motion, like the tumultuous waves of 
the sea after a great tempest. And it is very notice- 
able that these wandering nations are not savage tribes, 
but people with arts and ideas ; not the germs of crude 
nations, but the polished fragments of a civilization 
higher in many characteristics than we have had since ; 
that their languages are the wonder of later times, and 
their fables and poems our despair. As the white race 
goes far from its original European seat, it loses its 
higher characteristics, and contracts new ones, accord- 
ing to its locality. Thus it is stultified, and put into 
a sort of catalepsy in China ; in India, it runs rank, like 
the vegetation of the climate ; in Egypt, it petrifies 
into the stone, which seems to be the only plastic ma- 
terial it finds, and to which it at last yields. In 
Greece, the part of Europe next to Asia, and in Judea, 
the part of Asia nearest Europe, we find the salient 
points of progress, which proceeds in two diverse 
courses, that at last meet and give rise to Christendom 
— the subject of modern history. 

This manual is no place for curious speculations, and 
affords no room for extensive criticism. The compiler 
must deny herself the fascinating work of comparing 
the golden age of Grecian and Italian story with the 
original kingdom of Ormuz, described by Zoroaster, and 
with the Eden of the Hebrew Genesis ; the various 
traditions of the fall of man, and renewing of the race 
after great convulsions, moral and natural. The curious 
student can consult, on this subject, Heeren’s Researches 
into ancient Asia and Africa ; Sir William Jones’s Dis- 
sertations, in the Asiatic Researches, or in his complete 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


115 


works ; Bailly’s History of Ancient Astronomy ; his 
Letters to Voltaire on the Origin of the Sciences, and 
his Disquisition upon the Atlantis of Plato ; also, 
Bryant’s Ancient Mythology ; Muller’s Histories of the 
Dorians and the Etruscans ; Bunsen’s Researches into 
Egyptian Antiquity ; Niebuhr’s Roman History ; and 
the work of Henne, mentioned above. There are 
doubtless other works of equal, perhaps of superior 
value to these ; but the compiler feels conscientious in 
recommending books which she has not read herself. 
Each of these authors has his own pet theory, and 
collects multitudes of facts to support it. The facts 
are valuable, and, viewed in so many different lights, 
may conduct a careful student to results varying from 
those of all these authors, but more just than those of 
either of them. Heeren and Henne are especially 
valuable for their careful description of marvellous 
monuments still existing. We have a more venerable 
idea of the human race after we have read of those 
vast architectures of India, Ethiopia, and Egypt, 
wherein man did once dwell, but which he has left, 
like a tent erected for a night ; and we more earnestly 
say to the soul of our race, as did the dying ancient 
philosopher to his own soul, “ Into what places goest 

THOU NOW ? ” 


The teacher of history must consider the ages and 
capacities of his pupils, and omit or dwell upon these 
earliest ages according to circumstances. **In many 
cases, it will be enough to enable them, by. means of a 
little oral instruction, to answer the questions, “ What 
nations were flourishing twenty-five centuries before 
Christ ? What are the traditions preceding Abraham, 
recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures ? What correspond- 
ing traditions are there in other nations ? ” 

It is also desirable that some hints should be given 
to students upon the nature of my thological . expres- 


116 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


sion. There is an admirable work of Miiller T s, the best 
key to this subject extant, called Introduction to An- 
cient Mythology; but, as this book is only to be found 
at present in an English edition, a word must be said 
on the subject here. 

Language itself was the first mythology: for, like 
sculpture, painting, music, and the higher architecture, 
it is symbolical. Because we now learn words by rote, 
they are seldom to us what they were to those who 
first uttered them, inventing them as they spoke — 
conjurers to start spirits withal from the vasty deep. 
But can it not easily be seen, that when the human 
mind was in its pristine freshness to impression, ex- 
pression must have been of correspondent vigor and 
intelligence ; that the articulating organs were used 
with the same conscious intention with which a deaf 
mute now uses his whole body, in the natural lan- 
guage, (as it is called,) — fluttering, stamping, stiffening, 
gesticulating in all ways, pointing outwards, inwards, 
indicating external objects, as signs whereby to convey 
to the attentive observer a representation of that which 
the speaker has in his mind ; in an instinctive reliance 
upon the common nature of the human imagination, 
to which a fluttering of the fingers, for instance, would 
indicate a bird, and a bird volatility, or freedom, &c. ? 
The gymnastic of those articulating organs which pro- 
duce the elementary sounds of words, contains the 
secret of their meaning, and makes each word a little 
fable, symbolical picture, or music, addressed to the 
imaginative faculty, which is common to all men.* 

And in that vigorous era of the human mind when 
language could be created, all thought and fact would 
reappear in the mythical form, not by reflection, but 
by 'the first impulse. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, 
the Son of the morning , are natural growths, express- 
ing much more than any prosaic analytical translation 
of them can do. So the apologue of Babel is to be 


* This view is asserted in a pamphlet published in 1826, in Boston, 
with hints to its demonstration, by C. Kraitsir, M. D. 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


117 


understood as the resume of the history of centuries 
when the human race was consolidating a religion and 
polity in defiance of, rather than in harmony with, the 
highest laws of the soul ; but in which, at last, The 
Eternal Truth clearly manifested itself, by the sep- 
arations and hostilities at length developed. “ And the 
Lord God came down to see the city and the tower 
which the children of men had builded. # * # And 
the Lord God scattered them abroad over the whole 
earth, and they left off to build the city.” 

To those who do not understand symbolic expres- 
sion, the history of the earliest ages is a sealed book. 
To them the ten ages of birth (with the intervention 
of but a single death, and that one by violence) which 
precede the five or six ages of death, in the antedilu- 
vian history, produce a stolid impression of stupid 
amazement, instead of being, as to others, thought- 
awakening spells for the evocation of truth. To them 
the most beautiful mythology of Greece and Rome 
brings vulgarizing, and not refining influences. To 
them the fragments of Eastern and Northern theogony 
and cosmogony are but the ravings of insanity, and 
open no vistas into historical fact or eternal truth ; for 

“ Custom lieth on them with a weight 
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.” 

Mythology hinges upon history, though, when it is 
difficult to separate the idea symbolized from the fact 
which is its material side, dates are not to be discov- 
ered. Moses and Zoroaster had higher objects in 
collecting the traditions which introduce their sacred 
books, than to give dates of time ; but they doubtless 
took real history for the refracting atmosphere of their 
spiritual light and wisdom. The events of history are 
God’s conversations with man upon his nature, duties, 
and destiny. The symbols by which he teaches his 
children are the historical as well as the natural facts 
of this world. There was in antiquity a remarkable 
deluge, spoken of by many nations, and universal with 


118 


ESSAY ON THE EARLIEST AGES. 


respect to the people whose tradition of it Moses gives. 
The moral signification of it he truly interpreted. 
There is a predisposition in the human mind to attach 
moral and religious lessons to whatever befalls in the 
course of nature, and this predisposition points to a 
great Law of Life. To find God in history requires, 
certainly, a reverential caution, men are so apt to limit 
the sphere of their vision by subjective preoccupations. 
But when the scrolls of Time shall be spread out be- 
fore us, and the eye takes in large reaches, Providence 
will be no less visible in the disposition of events, than 
is Creative Intelligence to the eye which contemplates 
the relations in space of the forms of the universe. 
This is a corollary of the power, wisdom, and love of 
God. 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. 


Sketches of history should precede the study of 
the chronology of the people in question, either by the 
class reading it, or the instructor delivering it viva voce. 
Perhaps it will be best for the pupil to learn, at first, 
only those dates referred to in these sketches, and then 
be required to reproduce the sketch in recitation. 
Afterwards, a more minute study of all the chronologi- 
cal dates given in the manual should be made, and 
information explaining the connections of each event 
be sought in some of the works referred to, or be 
given by the instructor, in the form of a conversa- 
tional lecture. The reproduction of every thing told 
should, however, be required of the pupils, either in 
recitation or by written abstracts. 


HEBREWS. 

As the story of the Hebrews goes over the whole 
twenty-five centuries before Christ, it is a good plan to 
begin with their history. The birth of Terah can be 
marked in the twenty-fifth century, it having occurred, 
according to the Art of Verifying Dates, 2436 B. C. 
The birth of Abraham occurred in the twenty-fourth 
century, 2366 B. C. But the Hebrew history properly 
begins with the Call of Abraham. The teacher or 
student who wishes to learn the history of the Hebrews 
in detail, can pick it out, to a certain extent, in the 
Bible, by taking for commentary a modern history, 
such as Jahn’s Hebrew Commonwealth, translated 
from the German by Dr. Calvin Stowe; or the first 


120 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. 


volume of Milman’s brilliant History of the Jews. 
There is also a short, but very striking sketch of the 
whole course of their national life, in the ninth book 
of Muller’s Universal History. 

The contemporary memoirs of a nation are apt to be 
one-sided ; yet only from them can one get into the 
spirit of a people. Where the Old Testament — apo- 
cryphal as well as canonical — fails, Josephus can be 
referred to. But to see a nation’s history as it lies in 
the course of time, it is important to take a modern 
standpoint also. 

For a common school exercise, however, it is prob- 
able that the following sketch will serve the purpose, 
— the pupils being encouraged to study out the details 
in the Bible. 

Twenty-three centuries before Christ, Abraham left 
the Chaldean country, to set up a purer worship than 
was consolidating there, and journeyed towards the 
west till he came to the country where afterwards 
Jerusalem was built. At that time it was merely 
called Salem, and was inhabited by a king, Melchiz- 
edek, who also worshipped the one “Most High God.” 

Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael 
became the father of a tribe of Arabians, called from 
his name ; but Isaac continued to dwell in the land 
where his father had built altars to God, the Promiser, 
for that is the meaning of the word Jehovah, (which 
consists of the three tenses of the verb to be, of the 
Hebrew language, was — is — shall be.) Isaac mar- 
ried his cousin Rebekah, and had twin sons, Jacob and 
Esau. Esau became the patriarch of a tribe of 
Arabians, called Edomites, or Idumeans, from his eldest 
son, Edom ; while Jacob inherited the lands of his 
father Isaac. Jacob married two of his cousins, and 
had a family of twelve children, who were the patri- 
archs of the Israelitish nation. 

The favorite son of Jacob, the eldest child of his 
beloved Rachel, Joseph, became an object of jealousy 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — HEBREWS. 


121 


to his brothers, and was sold by them as a slave, and 
carried into Egypt, where, by a remarkable course of 
events, he became the regent of the kingdom, and 
had an opportunity of inviting and settling his father 
and brothers in Egypt, when they were driven from 
their own country by a famine. 

But though the children of Jacob and their descend- 
ants lived in Egypt some centuries, they still consid- 
ered themselves possessors of the country which Abra- 
ham had bought and colonized, and cherished the idea 
of returning to it. 

Egypt, at the time that Jacob removed into it, was 
governed by a race of shepherd kings, who had come 
into it on the north-east, and who, some authors sup- 
pose, were Arabians ; some think they were Phoeni- 
cians ; and one author* supposes they were a European 
race. 

These shepherd kings were afterwards driven out 
by a powerful king of Thebes, who established a new 
empire in Egypt, which was very splendid and power- 
ful for a thousand years. This new dynasty regarded 
and treated the Israelites as slaves ; but they were 
delivered from their bondage, and led back to their old 
country, about four hundred years after Jacob’s removal 
into Egypt, by one of their own number. This was 
Moses, who had been adopted into the king’s family, 
and added ail the wisdom of the Egyptians to the 
inspiration of his people’s religion, which had been 
taught him in his infancy by his mother, who was 
of the tribe of Levi, and an enthusiast in religion, as 
we learn from the story of her exposing Moses upon 
the River Nile, trusting that he would be saved by some 
providential interposition. 

After Moses had delivered the Israelites from Egypt, 
he kept fhem wandering in the wilderness of Arabia, 
between Egypt and their own country, for forty years, 
living like the Bedouin Arabs ; during which time he 


11 


* Henne. 


122 


SKETCHES OF IIISTOKY. — HEBREWS, 


taught them their religion, and exercised them in a 
magnificent form of worship, which was symbolic of 
the spiritual life, and designed to prepare them for it; 
in fact, Moses educated the whole generation. Moses 
died on a mountain from which he was viewing the 
promised land; and Joshua led the people over the 
River Jordan into Canaan, as it was called from a tribe 
of Arabs who dwelt there before Abraham went to it. 
According to the directions given by Moses, they con- 
quered the land, and drove out most of the old inhabit- 
ants ; but those they left became the source of their 
greatest misfortunes, for the religion of these Canaan- 
ites was the worst form of the worship of material 
nature. Their rites involved 11 passing their children 
through the fire to Moloch,” together with some other 
abominations, so congenial to the sensual temperament 
of the Israelites, that they were continually drawn 
away from their own purer worship, which Moses had 
so arranged, that it promoted purity of morals and 
kindness of heart to a very great degree. Those 
people who doubt this ought to study Michael is’s 
Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, where is explained 
the bearing of all those laws, which seem to us so tedi- 
ously minute. 

The government which Joshua established was a 
kind of federal republic. The old men of each tribe 
directed their affairs, which were easily managed, as 
they were all farmers or shepherds ; and they recurred 
to the high priest, whenever the whole nation was to 
act together. 

Their bond of union was their religion, which 
required them to assemble, at certain times of the year, 
for the most joyous, patriotic festivals and splendid 
religious ceremonies. These were directed by their 
priests, who were all of the tribe of Levi. The priests 
were supported by the revenue of the temple, (or 
tabernacle,) and were the learned class — lawyers, 
physicians, artists, &c. 

For several hundred years they went on under this 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — HEBREWS. 


123 


free government ; and whenever any tribe fell into dif- 
ficulty by forsaking the religious unity of the nation, 
some hero, inspired by their religion, would rise up 
and cause a kind of religious revival, and deliver them. 
These deliverers were called judges. The names of 
fifteen have come down to us, # if we count among 
them the two last, who were also high priests — Eli 
*and Samuel. The sons of these priests so abused and 
oppressed the people, that the elders of the tribes pro- 
posed to have a king, “like other nations .’ 7 Samuel 
told them many disadvantages of having kings ; but 
they were very determined, and so he proceeded to find 
one, and Saul was chosen. He was taller by a head 
than all the people, and this seems to have been his 
greatest merit in their eyes. Saul was brave, and a 
good deal beloved, but he did not always conform to 
the religious laws ; and Samuel secretly anointed his 
successor, while Saul was still living. This successor 
was of another tribe. 

David, who was thus secretly anointed, took no 
measures to get the throne ; and he was, for a time, a 
great favorite of Saul’s, whom he used to relieve of a 
morbid melancholy by playing on his harp ; for David 
was a musician and a poet. He afterawrds married the 
king’s daughter, whieh was the prize offered for killing 
a Philistine giant. But the glory David obtained by 
killing Goliah roused Saul’s jealousy, who tried to 
kill him ; and although David was loyal and true to 
Saul, he was thriven into a defensive war by Saul’s 

persecutions, n 

On Saul’s death, Ishbosheth, his son, became king 
of ten tribes ; but David was recognized king by the 
other two tribes, and in seven years by all : and, being 


* The names of the judges were, — 


b. c. 

1554 OthnieL 
1496 Ehud. 

1396 Deborah and 
Barak. 


1349 Gideon. 
1309 Abimelech. 
1306 Tola. 

1283 Jair. 

1437 Ibzan. 


1230 Ai'alon. 
1220 Abdon. 
1172 Samson. 
1152 Eli. 

1092 SamueL 


124 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — HEBREWS. 


a great warrior, he extended the empire from the River 
Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea, and left his son 
Solomon to succeed him, with a splendid kingdom and 
an overflowing treasury, B. C. 1001. 

Solomon was learned and wise, and began his reign 
gloriously ; but he was too fond of pleasure, lie had 
a thousand wives, and became, in his old age, an idol- 
ater. 

He was succeeded by his son Rehoboam, who refused 
to relieve his subjects of the too great taxes Solomon 
had imposed on them. Consequently, in his time, the 
kingdom was rent asunder. Rehoboam retained only 
the tribes of Judah and Benjamin ; but these were the 
most important, as they contained the sacred cities, — 
and the priests rallied into them. 

Jeroboam took the other ten tribes, and set up a new 
sacred city at Shechem, and made two golden calves, 
as images of God, and had spurious priests and a wor- 
ship of his own. There were eighteen Israelitish 
kings; and then the Israelites were carried into cap- 
tivity by a king of Assyria, (Salmaneser,) who sent 
other people to fill their old land ; and this was the end 
of the kingdom of Israel. The books of Tobias tell 
how the Israelites fared in Assyria. 

Tiie kings of Judah were more generally faithful xo 
their religion than the Israelitish nation, and lasted 
more than a century longer, when their twentieth king 
was carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
Babylon, whose father had united the kingdoms of 
Nineveh and Babylon by conquest. But the Jews 
preserved their nationality in Babylon, for their misfor- 
tunes seemed to make them more enthusiastically reli- 
gious than they had ever been ; and their nationality 
was wrapped up in their religion. 

During the whole history of the two kingdoms, 
there had flourished prophet bards, who were inspired 
by the religious traditions, and forever strove to keep 
the people faithful. The names of those whose songs 
have survived, are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Obadiah, 


SKETCHES OP HISTORY. — HEBREWS. 


125 


Micah, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. (It is 
probable that “ Jonah” was only ail Oriental apologue, 
and Job ” an Idumean poem, founded on a tradition 
current in all the East. This poem was brought by 
David from Idumea, which he conquered.) During 
the days of the captivity in Babylon, the prophets did 
not fail. Ezekiel and Daniel show the influence of 
t their foreign culture. 

When Cyrus, and Cyaxares the Mede,made conquest 
of the world from the Indus to the Mediterranean Sea, 
they took Babylon, and Cyrus made an edict, permit- 
ting the Jews to return to their country. 

They returned, though not all at once. Ezra, (Es- 
dras,) and, somewhat later, Nehemiah, were leaders of 
different sets of people, who went from Babylon to 
Jerusalem. Ezra rebuilt the temple, and Nehemiah 
rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem ; and they set about 
establishing their old worship, which they effected, but 
not without wars and difficulties. Ezra recovered and 
arranged the sacred Scriptures, and is supposed by 
many to be the prophet Malachi. He, with Haggai 
and Zachariah, closed the line of prophets. The book 
of Esther gives an insight into the condition of the 
Jews who remained in Persia. It is a question whether 
her husband was Cyaxares the Mede, or Darius Hys- 
taspes. 

At the time of the rebuilding of the temple, after the 
return from captivity, there was much contention with 
the people who had colonized the old capital of the Israel- 
ites, and were attempting to renew there a spurious rite 
by the aid of renegade priests from Jerusalem. This was 
the origin of the Samaritan worship on Mount Gerizim, 
which disputed that of Jerusalem even till the times of 
Christ. 

When the Persian empire fell under Alexander the 
Great, Judaea, as one of the dependent provinces, 
would, of course, fall into the great Macedonian empire. 
But there is an anecdote related by Josephus, with 
respect to this, which is very picturesque. Alexander 
11 * 


126 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — HEBREW'S. 


besieged Tyre for a long time before ( it gave way to 
him ; and, during the siege, he sent to the several 
cities of Syria, to send him their keys, and, among the 
rest, to Jerusalem. But Jerusalem preserved its loyalty 
to the yet unconquered Persia, and refused its keys. 
Alexander became furious at the Jong-protracted siege 
of Tyre, and, when he took it, had three thousand of 
the inhabitants crucified, and then set forth breathing 
revenge and destruction towards Jerusalem. But when 
he came near the city, he saw approach a procession 
of priests, with all their ritual insignia, headed by 
Jaddua, the high priest, a venerable old man with a 
white beard, and in the magnificent costume of his 
office, while the people followed in white robes, scat- 
tering flowers. Immediately Alexander arrested his 
army, and dismounting his war horse, went to meet 
the old man, knelt before him, and asked his blessing. 
He then turned to the astonished army, and told them 
that, while yet in Macedonia, and planning his great 
expedition, he dreamed of this very procession, and of 
this old man, who, he said, predicted to him final suc- 
cess. 

Josephus evidently considers this dream a supernat- 
ural intervention of the God of the Hebrews to save 
his people from the destroyer. But it is quite iti keep- 
ing with the intelligence and disposition of Alexander, 
that he had gotten over his fury during his journey 
from Tyre to Jerusalem ; and, in the reaction of his 
feelings, was glad to make use of any pretext to dis- 
pense with the necessity of executing his terrible 
threats. By this manner of meeting the high priest, 
he made the Jews his friends; and, on the decision. of 
the war in his favor, Judsea passed under the Grecian 
sway with a friendly disposition. It continued to be 
governed by high priests; and when the empire of 
Alexander fell apart, Judaea, of course, became an inte- 
gral part of one of the divisions. It first fell under 
the Egyptian Ptolemy, and afterwards under the Seleu- 
cidae of Syria. At length, Antiochus Epiphanes, 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — HEBREWS. 


127 


undertaking to establish the religious rites of Greece- 
every where, to make uniformity in his dominions, 
profaned the temple of Jerusalem with a sacrifice 
to Jupiter. This produced a revolution, (B. C. 167,) 
begun by Matthias Maccabmus, the high priest, who, 
with his brothers, Jonathan and Simon, made the 
Jews independent, and the sovereignty hereditary in 
£he family. John Hyrcanus, son of Simon, made the 
name of Judaea respected by means of his conquests ; 
and his son, Aristobulus I., took the title of king. 
Aristobulus’s son, Alexander Jannaeus, was fierce and 
cruel, and had a civil war with the Pharisees, during 
which he crucified nearly seven thousand of them. 
His wife, Alexandra, took the regency, after his death, 
during the minority of her sons. The weakest of 
them, Hyrcanus II., was elected by the Pharisees, 
but Aristobulus II. disputed the claim, and vanquished 
Hyrcanus. Four years after, he called the Roman 
Pompey to confirm his title. But Pompey restored 
Hyrcanus, and took Aristobulus prisoner. After some 
further changes, the Romans, who were now conquer- 
ing in Syria, suppressed the title of king, called Hyr- 
canus high priest merely, and made Judaea tributary. 
Still later, Julius Caesar allowed Hyrcanus to call him- 
self prince , but gave the administration of affairs to 
Herod, an Idumean, son of one Antipater, whom Hyrca- 
nus had made his prime minister. But afterwards, when 
Antigonus, the last of the Asrnonaeans, (Maccabees,) was 
named king of Judaea by the Parthians, Herod, by flat- 
tering Antony and Augustus, was assisted to besiege 
and take Jerusalem, and declare himself its king. 

Herod rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem the third 
time, and was living when Jesus Christ was born, but 
died two or three years after ; and then Palestine was 
made into a tetrarchate, over which was set a Roman 
governor, with power of life and death. This was the 
government when Christ was crucified, A. D. 27. 

A. D. 70, Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, son of 
the Roman emperor. Its siege is one of the most 
terrible chapters of human history. 


1 2S 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SYRIA. 


The Jews were scattered, but not lost ; for the form 
of the religion, which was the principle of their national 
life, became their idol, and has kept them distinct from 
other nations ever since. 


SYRIA. 

This country, called Ccelo-Syria, or Hollow Syria, 
from its formation, is as rich and beautiful by nature 
as any part of the world, and, from the earliest known 
times, was full of rich communities ; sometimes inde- 
pendent, and sometimes under the predominance of 
Babylon, Assyria, Arabia, or Judaea. Only once, how- 
ever, was it under Judaea. In David’s time, it was 
conquered by him. He annihilated a kingdom of 
Sobah, far to the east, and conquered other cities, but 
reinvested the kings of Gessur and Damascus. After 
his death, Syria became independent of the Hebrews, 
and kings of Damascus are spoken of especially. In 
the eighth century, Tiglath Pileser of Assyria con- 
quered several cities, Damascus among the rest. His 
successors contended with the Egyptian kings for 
Syria in vain. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered 
it from Nechao, of Egypt. From the kings of Babylon 
it passed to the kings of Persia ; from them to Alexan- 
der ; and, on his death, became the battle-ground of his 
generals. In the first division of the empire, it fell to 
Ptolemy Lagus, but the name of kingdom of* Syria was 
given soon after to Seleucus’s kingdom, which extended 
from the Indus and beyond to Asia Minor, and included 
Ccelo-Syria, to which Antioch was built for a capital, 
and named from the father of Seleucus. This city at 
last rivalled Babylon, and became queen of the East. 

Seleucus, in the last part of his life, gave up his 
estates in Asia to Antiochus, his son, and went to Mace- 
donia, his native country, to end his days. There he 
was killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus, of whom he had 
been the benefactor, and who became king of Mace- 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SYRIA. 


129 


don for a season. This first Seleucus was a very 
great man, and even a very good one. Antiochus I. 
married his own step-mother, with his father’s consent. 
He defeated the invading Gauls, and hence was called 
Soter, or Savior. Antiochus II. was called Theos, 
(the god,) because he delivered the Milesians from their 
tyrant Timarchus. He married Berenice of Egypt, 
repudiating his first wife, Laodice ; but, after Ptolemy 
Philadelphus’s death, he repudiated her, and took back 
Laodice. Afterwards, Laodice poisoned her husband. 
Parthia, Bactriana, and other nations threw off the 
yoke of Syria during this king’s reign. During the 
reign of Seleucus II., his mother, Laodice, poisoned 
her old rival, Berenice, which drew an Egyptian war 
upon Syria. He was called Callinicus, or the Victori- 
ous, on account of his successes in overcoming his 
brother Antiochus, who rebelled against him. He 
died a prisoner to the king of Parthia. Seleucus III. 
reigned feebly for three years, when his brother Anti- 
ochus III. came upon the throne. He was called the 
Great on account of recovering Bactriana. He also 
was successful in the civil wars raised in the beginning 
of his reign by his ungrateful brothers. He had to 
contend with many usurpers, and was always success- 
ful ; but at length, joining with Philip of Macedonia to 
take Egypt from its young sovereign, he encountered 
the Romans, whom Aristomenes, Ptolemy’s Guardian, 
invoked to his assistance. They sent to him to leave 
Egypt ; and though he did not obey them, he did, after 
a time, leave the enterprise upon Egypt to recover Asia 
Minor, which Attalus, king of Pergamus, was ruling. 
In this he was successful, and the Grecian cities in- 
voked the aid of Rome. At its summons, he yielded up 
the Greek cities, and what he had conquered of Egypt, 
and was deliberating about a war with Rome, when 
Hannibal, the Carthaginian, arrived at his court, and 
determined him to it. Antiochus met the Romans in 
Thessaly, and was defeated by them at Thermopylae. 
His fleet was also beaten at sea ; and, the next year, 


130 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SYRIA. 


he was beaten at Magnesia, in Syria, by Scipio Africa- 
nus. In the end, he made peace with the Romans, 
giving up all the Greek cities and some other parts of 
Asia, and his son Antiochus as a hostage. He was 
killed afterwards in an excitement he had raised by 
pillaging the temple of Jupiter Belus, at Elymais. 

Seleucus IV. is the king who sent Heliodorns to 
pillage the temple of Jerusalem. This same Heliodo- 
rus poisoned him, just at the time that he was substi- 
tuting his son Demetrius for his brother Antiochus as 
hostage with the Romans. 

Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, or Illustrious, was at 
Athens, and took the throne, to the prejudice of his 
nephew. He soon conquered Syria from the usurper 
Heliodorns. He then engaged in a war upon Egypt ; 
at first with success, but at length was driven out, and 
wreaked the fury of his disappointment upon the Jews. 
His attempt to make a sacrifice to Jupiter in the tem- 
ple of God, provoked the revolt of the Maccabees. He 
was soon obliged to leave this war in the hands of 
Lysias, and go to subdue Armenia and Persia. But 
on this expedition he died, some say of rage at the 
repeated victories of the Jews. His son Eupator, only 
nine years old, succeeded, but was superseded by his 
cousin Demetrius, who escaped from Rome, and for 
whom Syria immediately declared, sending Eupator 
and his guardian to him. He put to death Eupator 
and his guardian. He was named Soter because he 
punished two wicked satraps of Babylonia. But he 
soon gave himself up to selfish luxuries, and became 
the victim of a conspiracy, by which a pretended son of 
Antiochus Epiphanes was put on the throne. This was 
really a Rhodian, by name Bala, who took the name 
of Alexander. But, this king becoming unpopular also 
by his voluptuous selfishness, Demetrius Soter’s eldest 
son superseded him, and was called Nicator, or the 
conqueror, in consequence. But he also gave himself 
up to luxury and idleness, and a certain Tryphon took 
advantage of this, and proclaimed king the infant son of 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — CHINA. 


131 


Alexander Bala, intending, in the end, to get the crown 
for himself ; and having succeeded, he most cruelly made 
way with the child. Demetrius had still a part of the 
empire, but was taken prisoner in a war with the Par- 
tisans. His wife, Cleopatra, then married her brother- 
in-law, Antiochus Sidetes, because Demetrius, in his 
exile, married the daughter of the king of the Partisans. 
Antiochus Sidetes took from the king of Parthia all 
the Syrian provinces he had conquered, but at length 
perished in a battle with him. Demetrius Nicator 
soon after returned to Syria, having at length escaped 
from Parthia ; and there he encountered another rival 
in Alexander Zebina, who pretended to be a son of 
Alexander Bala. Demetrius was put to flight, and 
assassinated, after all, in Tyre, where, he had taken 
refuge. His son Antiochus Gripus succeeded, and put 
Alexander Zebina to death. The wars between him 
and his brother Cyzicus, and their children, so wearied 
out the Syrians, that they called Tigranes the Arme- 
nian to the throne. On his going into Armenia after- 
wards, to defend it from Lucullus, the Roman general, 
Antiochus XIII., the last of the Seleucidae, seized the 
kingdom, and called on the Romans to defend him in 
it ; but they took possession of it themselves, and he 
ended his days in obscurity. 


CHINA. 

The history of China has very little relation with 
the general progress of the race. It has never been 
connected with the nations which are to us the world. 
It is said that its own historians attribute to China an 
antiquity of eighty thousand years. But the authors 
of the Art of Verifying Dates, although they give a 
connected story for nearly three thousand years back, 
beginning with Fohi, acknowledge that this period 
has been successfully criticized away, till about the 


132 


SKETCHES OE HISTORY. — INDIA. 


ninth century before Christ, when the western Tartars 
invaded the country in the reign of Siuen-wang. 

In the sixth century before Christ lived Kong-tse, 
or Confucius, who was made minister of the kingdom 
Lou, now called Chantong, and whose writings give 
a moral and human association to our minds with the 
Chinese. His descendants are born mandarins, and 
pay no tribute. It is to be hoped that the time will 
come when we shall know more of this remarkable 
* philosopher, and the people who know how so to value 
and honor him. The only other event of Chinese 
history which seems to belong to mankind, is the 
building of the wall, B. C. 216. (On the Chart, these 
three things alone are indicated in a pale yellow.) In 
the third century before Christ, there was a vain 
attempt to introduce the religion of India into China. 
Later, the religion of Buddh was introduced with 
success. Since the Christian era, we know little more 
of China than before. From A. D. 960 to 1280, there 
seems to have been a period of greater life, under the 
dynasty of Song ; but this was overthrown by the 
Mongol invasion. Whoever goes to China becomes 
Chinese. It is struck with palsy or catalepsy. There 
are Jews there who left Palestine before the captivity 
of Babylon, and who remain in statu quo , like every 
thing else in China. The wild Mongols, who con- 
quered the kingdom, have been conquered in spirit by 
their subjects, all-powerful in vis inertia . 


INDIA. 

The ancient history of India is almost as little 
known as that of China. But European scholars have 
investigated the Indian monuments and writings, and 
in the third volume of Heeren’s Asiatic Researches is 
summed Tip what has been discovered. 

The most important thing to be known is, that the 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — INDIA. 


133 


upper castes of Indian society are composed of an en- 
tirely different race from the lower castes ; and this 
proves that the upper castes were a conquering nation, 
who settled among a people whom they mastered by 
their superior endowments. The Brahmins say they 
went into India from the north-west. Simultaneously 
with the splendid era of Egypt, namely, from the 
twenty-first to the fifth century before Christ, the 
Brah minical empire was in its glory. 

When the Buddhists originated is still an unanswered 
question. Buddhism was a reaction from the Brah- 
minical system, and in the greatest opposition as to 
doctrine and discipline. At first, it was universal ; but 
the Brahminical power rallied and shook it off in 
Western India. It prevails, however, to this day in 
Farther India and Thibet ; and extends over China. 
The greatest number of the human race are Buddhists. 
An account of the difference between Brahminism and 
Buddhism, as it appears superficially to an observer, 
may be found in the Travels of Rev. Howard Malcom. 
But his reasonings are wrong. Buddhism was not the 
oldest religion, but came upon Brahminism as a reform. 
In the French periodical called La Revue Indepen - 
dante are some valuable articles on Brahminism and 
Buddhism, viewed historically as well as intrinsically. 

But the history of India is yet to be written. The 
only names connected with our ancient histories are 
those of Porus, the king with whom Alexander came 
in contact, and Sandracottus, who shook off the yoke 
of Seleucus on one side, and attacked the native dynasty 
on the other. 

Therefore the student is commended to the works of 
Sir William Jones, and of Heeren ; and more especially 
to future inquirers and discoverers. Above all, if he 
can, let him go and explore the ground himself. It is 
a vast field and rich mine. 

12 


134 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — PERSIA. 


PERSIA. 

Any one who wishes to know of old Persia must study 
Sir John Malcolm’s History of Persia, and especially 
the first volume of Heeren’s Researches in iVsia. There 
he can learn the reasons for believing that Persepolis, 
and Zoroaster, (who writes of it as a city more than a 
thousand years old in his day,) date farther back in 
time, not only than the Hebrews, but farther back than 
the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Babylonians, Assyrians, or 
Brahmins. Zoroaster says he was born west of the 
Caspian Sea; but he lived and wrote in Bactra, a city 
near the sources of the Indus, over the mountains. 
This city has been explored by no European. Ac- 
counts of it are brought to the English of Cabul 
by traders, who say that the inhabitants call it the 
“ mother of cities,” and that it contains magnificent 
and mysterious ruins. In Zoroaster's time, it was a 
state composed of three orders or castes — priests, 
warriors, and artisans. It was surrounded by wicked 
deevs , who were probably the nomadic nations that 
forever threatened all the stationary nations of antiquity 
with destruction, and which finally overwhelmed Bac- 
tria, and destroyed its peculiar constitution of society. 

In the time of Abraham there is an incidental men- 
tion of the extent of the king of Persia’s power. Che- 
dorlaomcr is a Persian king, king of Elam , and his 
conquests extended even so far as Judaea, and must, 
therefore, have included all Syria. But we know 
nothing more of Persia from history until the sixth 
century, and then Babylon, Assyria, and Media seem 
to be greater than it ; for the Persian king seems to 
the king of Media less liable to rival his power than 
one of his own lords, which is the reason that he is 
chosen by Astyages to be the husband of his daughter 
Mandane. 

Cyrus was the son of Cambyses and Mandane. 
There are two lives of him, one by Herodotus, in his 
first book, Clio, and the other by Xenophon, in a sort 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY.— PERSIA. 


135 


of treatise upon education, illustrated by the childhood 
of Cyrus. Many persons suppose the Cyropsedia a 
romance. The histories in these two works differ 
much as to facts ; and in one particular, it is certain 
Xenophon was more accurate than Herodotus, for he 
agrees with the Hebrew record, that Cyrus and tho 
Median king together took Babylon, while Herodotus 
leaves us to suppose that Cyrus conquered his grand- 
father Astyages, took his throne, and conquered Baby- 
lon alone. 

There is no question that Cyrus united the king- 
doms of Media and Persia, and was sole king of both 
at last ; and that he conquered Lydia, and consequently 
came into possession of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, 
which had been provinces of Croesus’s empire ; for the 
Lydian kings had been great conquerors. Cyrus con- 
quered all the country from the Indus to the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, but died, according to Herodotus, in an 
unsuccessful attempt to conquer the Scythians. The 
anecdotes of Cyrus’s birth, youth, and dreadful death, 
are given at length by Herodotus, and therefore are not 
repeated here. It is best to read them in Herodotus. 

Cyrus meant to have conquered Egypt ; but that 
was left for his son Cambyses to do, who succeeded 
him, and lived seven years, mostly in Egypt. Cam- 
byses made unsuccessful attempts to get to Ethiopia 
and to the Libyan Ammonia. He acted so much like 
a madman, that modern critics have believed that he 
had the disease of insanity. 

He had his brother Smerdis murdered, whom his 
father had left governor of Media. Then a Median 
priest, pretending to be Smerdis, succeeded in obtain- 
ing the throne of Persia, and Cambyses was returning 
from Egypt to make war on this usurper, when he was 
killed by an accident. 

The false Smerdis reigned but seven months, when 
some Persian lords, having ascertained that he was not 
Smerdis the son of Cyrus, succeeded in assassinating 
him ; and one of their number, Darius Hystaspes, was 


133 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — PERSIA. 


chosen, by a singular kind of lottery, to be king. He 
married all the daughters of Cyrus; and as there were 
no more sons, his title was never disputed. His wives 
preserved the blood of Cyrus to the Persian dynasty. 

Darius Hystaspes was a man as great as Cyrus ; not 
as a conqueror, perhaps, — for there was little left to con- 
quer, — hut as an administrator. Both in Heeren’s 
Researches and in Herodotus’s History is described 
the arrangement of tribute made by Darius for his vast 
dominions. Every thing was so arranged that the 
riches of the whole world flowed directly into the 
treasury of Darius. He commanded all the people, 
who brought to the markets of Babylon and Thebes 
the commerce of the whole world, from China to the 
Gulf of Guinea. 

At last, Darius undertook to invade Europe. He 
conquered Thrace, and attempted the Scythians, on 
the north of the Danube. In this expedition, a cir- 
cumstance took place which gave the first impulse to 
the revolt of the Grecian colonies of Asia Minor from 
Darius, and the implication of the Athenians in the 
matter, which awoke in Darius the purpose of invading 
Greece. 

He did not do it, however. At first he sent his gen- 
eral Mardonius with a fleet, which was lost in a storm 
that drove it upon the promontory of Athos. Then 
he sent two generals, Datis and Artaphernes, with 
another fleet, straight across the Archipelago. They 
ravaged Euboea and some other islands ; but, landing in 
Attica, and drawing up their army of 110,000 men, 
upon the plains of Marathon, they were met and wholly 
vanqujshed by ten thousand Athenians, under the con- 
duct of Miltiades. After this, Darius, being engaged 
in quelling a revolt in Egypt, did nothing more in 
Europe, but left the conquest of Greece for his soil 
Xerxes. 3 

Xerxes spent four years in preparation, during which 
time he sent messengers to Greece to demand uncondi- 
tional submission. Some states received them civilly, 


SKETCHES OE HISTORY. — PERSIA. 


137 


but Athens and Sparta bid defiance to the great king. 
At last, he got on the way, with an army of five mil- 
lions, (including the women and children, and other 
hangers-on who accompanied, to share the victory, of 
which they felt very certain.) He crossed the Helles- 
pont on a bridge of boats, and poured down through 
Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, which offered no 
resistance ; but he met the rest of the Greeks at the 
pass of Thermopylae. Here he was stopped for three 
days by the Greeks; but at length he won his way 
over the mountains, and also through the strait itself, 
where' he left three hundred Spartanjs dead. But the 
spirit of his army was broken. This gallant defence, 
and the terrible loss of the Persians, made an impres- 
sion they never recovered from. He ravaged Attica, 
he burnt Athens ; but the people had escaped on board 
their fleet to Salamis. On the same day with the 
battle of Thermopylae, there was a naval fight at Arte- 
misium, in favor of the Greeks ; and now there was 
another battle, in the Bay of Salamis, which Xerxes wit- 
nessed from a throne upon the shore. This battle, also, 
the Greeks Won, though their fleet was very much smaller 
than the Persian fleet ; and Xerxes, struck with terror, 
hastened back to Persia, leaving with Mardonius three 
hundred thousand men, wherewith to prosecute the 
war the next spring. In the spring, this great army, 
which had wintered in Thessaly, came down towards 
Attica, and encountered the Grecian army of one hun- 
dred and ten thousand men at Platsea. Mardonius 
was killed early in the battle, and this decided the 
matter : the Greeks gained a complete victory. The 
same day, the Grecian fleet gained over the Persian a 
victory at Mycale, on the Asiatic side of the Archipelago. 
This virtually ended the war. In 449 B. C., the 
Athenian commander Cimon extorted from Artaxerxes, 
son of Xerxes, the freedom of the Greek cities of Asia 
Minor, and a promise that no Persian army should 
approach within thirty miles of the Grecian seas. This 
was twenty-one years after another victory which the 
12 * 


138 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — PERSIA. 


Greeks gained over the Persian fleet, at the mouth of 
the Eurymedon. 

This Artaxerxes was the third son of Xerxes, (his 
elder brother, and his elder brother’s eldest son, having 
been assassinated by a captain of the guard.) He was 
distinguished by the surname of Longimanus. He 
was succeeded in his turn by three of his sons, each 
of whom murdered his predecessor ! The third, Darius 
Nothus, was succeeded by Artaxerxes Mnemon, of 
whom Plutarch has written the life. But during 
Darius’s life, he had made another son, Cyrus the 
younger, viceroy of Asia Minor, and intended that he 
should retain that portion of the empire. But Cyrus 
was not. content with this gift. He wished to have 
the whole. In the course of the century, some changes 
had taken place in the relative position of Greece and 
Persia. In the Peloponnesian war, both Spartans and 
Athenians had applied to Persia, at different times, for 
assistance, and banished citizens of Greece had always 
been in the habit of flying to Persia. By these means, 
Cyrus had come in contact with Greeks, and been 
touched with Grecian culture. He was so friendly to 
the Greek colonies, that he might be said virtually to 
have resubdued them ; and, immediately after the 
accession of his brother, he was able to raise an army, 
of which thirteen thousand were Greeks, and set forth 
to do battle with his brother, without revealing the 
object of the march until they should arrive, except to 
the officers. He led them to Cunaxa, and there they 
found the great king drawn up to oppose them. At 
the very beginning of the battle, Cyrus was killed, and 
the victory became Artaxerxes Mnemon’s ; for there 
was no object to the war afterwards. Xenophon, 
who was commander of the Greeks, led back, through 
hostile nations, ten thousand of his men, and has writ- 
ten a history of this masterly “ retreat of the ten thou- 
sand,” in a masterly piece of composition, called the 
Anabasis. 

Artaxerxes Mnemon’s reign was very long, and, 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — PERSIA. 


139 


during its continuance, he succeeded, by the power of 
money, in breaking down the unity and spirit of Greece. 
B. C. 388, he dictated to Antalcidas, the Spartan, a 
peace by which he obtained the domination of all the 
Greek cities of Asia, and the islands of Cyprus and 
Olazomene ; and the rest of the states of Greece were 
obliged to sign it. He did not gain Salamis of Cyprus, 
however, without a war with King Evagoras. He also, 
in vain endeavored to reduce to submission Egypt, 
which had revolted and set up independent kings* B. C. 
414, when Darius Nothus was on his throne. Darius 
Ochus, the successor of Artaxerxes Mnemon, did suc- 
ceed in subjecting Egypt, and in putting down other 
revolts. Darius’s son, Arsaces, only reigned two years, 
when he was assassinated by his prime minister, Ba- 
goas ; and his cousin Darius Codomanus came upon the 
throne the same year in which Alexander the Great 
ascended the throne of Macedon. 

Darius Codomanus is only known by his misfortunes. 
During his reign of six years, Alexander conquered his 
empire. After the battle of Arbela, Darius fled towards 
Bactria, and was murdered on his way by two of his 
satraps, one of whom assumed the title of king of Bac- 
triana, but was conquered by Alexander afterwards, 
and sent to the brother of Darius, with a rope around 
his neck. Alexander behaved with great consideration 
to the family of Darius, and married his daughter Sta- 
tira. 

Thus ended the great Persian empire. It never 
afterwards recovered its unity. When Alexander’s 
empire fell to pieces, many old nations, that had been 
conquered by Cyrus and Darius, recovered their inde- 
pendence. Others were united into new kingdoms, under 
Alexander’s generals. Much of this portion of the 
empire fell into the Syrian kingdom of the Seleucidae. 
When the dismemberment of their kingdom began, 
B. C. 255, the kingdom of Bactriana detached itself 
under a king, and also the kingdom of Parthia, which, 
under the Arsacides, descendants of the old royal 


140 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — BABYLON. 


family of Persia, lasted till beyond the Christian era, 
in spite of Rome. It at length fell into the Eastern 
Empire. But. A. D. 226, a modern Persia developed 
itself, under Ardschir, and lasted four centuries, when 
Khalid and Said, the Saracen generals of the first 
caliphs, subdued it. The Mongols took it from them ; 
but, A. D. 1504, the kingdom of the sophis began, 
which lasted till 1750. Another dynasty rules now. 
All these empires occupied but a small portion of the 
ancient Iran. It exists at present in alliance with the 
English, but threatened by the czar of Russia. 


BABYLON. 

The Hebrew Scriptures make Babylon an Arabian 
city ; for they say that Nimrod, the son of Cush, was 
its earliest king. But 1A Art de Verifier les Dates says 
that its eighth king was the first Arabian, and only 
gives five of the Arabian dynasty. The same au- 
thority says that this Arabian dynasty was driven off 
by Bel, a Chaldean, who came from the north. Thirty- 
six sovereigns of the dynasty of Bel are named, of 
which Ninus and Semiramis alone have any associa- 
tions hanging round them. The date of these is dis- 
puted, even to the extent of five hundred years ! But 
their names are connected with the ideas of extensive 
conquest and immense luxury, and Semiramis is said 
to have done much towards making Babylon so remark- 
able a city. The last of this dynasty of Babylonian 
kings was Sardanapalus, only known by his misfor- 
tunes, and one remarkable act. Against him his three 
principal satraps revolted, Arbaces of Media, Belesis of 
Babylon, and Pul of Assyria. Ou finding himself 
besieged and hopeless in the city, he gathered together 
his treasures, and burnt them with himself. 

Belesis made a new Babylonian kingdom, independ- 
ent of Media and Assyria. But of eleven successors, who 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — BAB YLON. 


141 


reigned in sixty years, only one is mentioned in his- 
tory — Merodach Baladan, who had some relations with 
Hezekiah, king of the Jews. Messimordarchus, the 
twelfth king of this second Babylon, was conquered 
by Esarhaddon, the fifth king of the second Assyria ; 
and it was made a province of Assyria. But the grand- 
son of Esarhaddon, Sarac, was in his turn conquered by 
a Chaldean satrap of Babylon, Nabopolassar, who, on 
this occasion, was joined by Cyaxares I. of Media. 
Hence arose a third Babylon, of which Nabopolassar 
was the first king. Nabopolassar was invaded by Ne- 
chao, king of Egypt ; and in the latter part of his 
reign, Syria and Palestine revolted from him, against 
whom he sent his son Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered 
all the country from the River Euphrates to the River 
of Egypt, (not the Nile, but a small river running 
across the desert that separates Judasa from Egypt.) 
While he was doing this, his father died, and Nebu- 
chadnezzar became sole king. 

The Hebrew Scriptures tell of Nebuchadnezzar’s 
invasion and destruction of Jerusalem. He also be- 
sieged Tyre thirteen years, and when he took it he 
destroyed it ; but its inhabitants had fled to the island, 
where they afterwards built a new Tyre. Nebuchad- 
nezzar also attacked and ravaged Egypt, and then 
returned home to embellish Babylon. The books of 
Daniel and Ezekiel tell a great deal about this king, 
who was contemporary with them. He is said to have 
been insane seven years ; and during this long illness, 
his son Evil-merodach reigned over Babylon. But 
Evil-merodach was so cruel, that when his father recov- 
ered, he was put in prison. Here he became acquainted 
and friendly with Jechoniah, king of Judah, whom 
Nebuchadnezzar held in captivity thirty-seven years. 
On Nebuchadnezzar’s death, when Evil-merodach came 
to the throne, he took Jechoniah out of prison, and 
“set him among the princes” of his court. But this 
is the only kind thing reported of Evil-merodach. He 
wc-s licentious and cruel, and at length was assassinated 
by his own family, after a reign of two years. 


142 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — BABYLON. 


One of the conspirators, Neriglissor, Evil-merodach’s 
brother-in-law, succeeded him; and, not content with 
the vast empire of united Babylon and Assyria, he pro- 
jected a conquest of Media. For this purpose, he 
made great alliances; but the king of Media, Cyax- 
ares II., together with Cyrus of Persia, met, vanquished, 
and killed him. 

He was succeeded by his son, Laborosoarchod, a 
cruel, odious prince, who alienated from him his best 
generals, by wantonly destroying their sons, whom he 
envied for their superior talents and beauty. He also 
was defeated by Cyrus, and driven into Babylon, where 
his own subjects assassinated him. 

On his death, the son of Evil-merodach, Labynitus, 
recovered the throne. This young man, whom the 
Hebrew Scriptures call Belshazzar, was as bad as his 
father, and so incapable, that his mother, Nitocris, 
reigned for him, and is said to have completed those 
embellishments of Babylon which Nebuchadnezzar 
began. She also at length roused her indolent 
son to do something to avert the impending ruin which 
the preparations of Cyrus to conquer Babylon threat- 
ened. He made an alliance with Croesus, the rich 
king of Lydia, who brought a great army to his aid. 
But the united Babylonians and Lydians were defeated 
by the united Medians and Persians, in the famous 
battle of Thymbra3a, which put an end to the power 
of Lydia. 

Labynitus, however, succeeded in retreating to Baby- 
lon, where he shut himself up, relying on his strong 
walls, and internally provisioned city. Cyrus was 
engaged two years in besieging Babylon, during which 
time he made preparations to turn the Euphrates out 
of its course ; and, on a certain night, he did this at 
once, and marched into the city on the drained bed of 
the river. The whole story is told in Herodotus, 
(Clio;) and in the book of Daniel, a vivid account of 
the fatal night is given. 

This was the fall of Babylon. It never after recov- 


SKETCHES OE HISTORY. — ASSYRIA. 


143 


ered its independence. In the days of Darius Hys- 
taspes, it revolted, but was recovered by the arts of a 
certain Zopyrus, who mutilated himself, and pretended 
that it was done by Darius, and thus gained admittance 
into Babylon, and the command of the walls; when 
he opened the gates to his master, who had besieged it 
for twenty years in vain. 

From the kings of Persia, Babylon passed into the 
power of Alexander the Great, who made it his resi- 
dence, and died there. Of his generals, Seleucus took 
it after his death. But for some reason, Seleucus built 
a new city about forty miles from Babylon, on the 
Tigris, which he named Seleucia, and invited the inhab- 
itants of Babylon thither. Thence the city fell into 
ruins. The Persian and Parthian kings made a park 
of it. Its ruins are still visible, and the best account 
of them is in the Travels of Sir Robert Kerr Porter. 

Herodotus visited Babylon himself, and describes it 
as ir was in his day. Among modern works on Baby- 
lon, the most valuable is Heereu’s Essay, to be found 
in the second volume of his Researches in Asia, 
where also is a very valuable account of Phoenicia. 


ASSYRIA. 

The Hebrew Genesis speaks of an Ashur, who went 
out from Babylon, and built a city. From this city 
doubtless came the name of Assyria, and the city was 
afterwards embellished and named Nineveh, from Ninus, 
one oPthe kings of Assyria, or Babylon. The ancient 
history of Assyria is, like that of Babylon, lost. We 
cannot tell how much it was separated, and how much 
it was united with Babylon. Perhaps some new lights 
may come on this old history, from the labors of Mr. 
Layard among the ruins of Nineveh, lately discovered. 

But when the old kingdom of Babylon broke asun- 
der, at the death of Sardanapalus, the governor of 
Assyria erected it into a new kingdom, which was, for 


144 


SKETCHES OE HISTORY. — ASSYRIA. 


a time, the most powerful of the three, (Babylon, 
Media, and Assyria.) Of Pul, its first king, we hear in 
the Hebrew Scriptures. He had transactions with 
Menahem, king of Israel. His successor, Tiglath 
Pileser, made conquests in Syria ; and pretending to 
help Ahaz, king of Judah, against the king of Israel, 
he imposed on him a heavy tribute, and took from him 
two ports on the Red Sea, which commanded the com- 
merce of India. 

Salmaneser was the third king of Assyria. To him 
Hosea, king of Israel, refused to pay tribute, and made 
an alliance against him with an Ethiopian king, who 
had just conquered Egypt, called So in the Hebrew 
Scriptures, and Sabacus by Herodotus. The result of 
this alliance and defiance was, that Hosea was carried 
captive, and the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, to rise 
no more. It is said that Salmaneser was rather merci- 
ful to his captives ; but his successor, Sennacherib, was 
very cruel to them. In Sennacherib’s reign occurred 
the history of Tobias, which can be read in the Apoc- 
ryphal Scriptures. 

Sennacherib made war against Hezekiah, king of 
Judah, who refused to pay him tribute, which Salmane- 
ser had laid upon Judah. The Jews called to their aid 
the king of Egypt, and Sennacherib went against him, 
and ravaged Egypt three years. But a pestilence break- 
ing out in his army, he hastened home, when two of his 
sons put him to death. The parricides fled into Armenia, 
and Esarhaddon, his third son, reigned in his stead. 

Esarhaddon conquered Babylon under its twelfth 
king. His son Saosduchin was the first Nebuchad- 
nezzar mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. This 
king was very much hated by his own people, and was 
attacked by Phraortes, king of Media, whom, however, 
he vanquished. Holofernes, who was killed by the 
Hebrew girl Judith, was his general. This Holofer- 
nes was a terrible warrior, who laid waste Syria, Tyre, 
and Sidon, and attacked Judah. After his death, Neb- 
uchadnezzar had great disasters, and under his feeble 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — MEDIA. 


145 


son, Sarac, Nineveh and the Assyrian empire was finally 
destroyed by Cyaxares I., the Mede, and Nabopolassar 
of Babylon. 

Sarac destroyed himself, as Sardanapalus had done, 
by burning himself. The conquerors laid Nineveh 
waste. 

The kingdom of Assyria never revived 


MEDIA. 

The Medes were a very old nation. Their name 
occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures, among the sons of 
Japhet. But the first fact known to history is, their 
being made into a separate kingdom, B. C. 759, when 
Babylon and Assyria also were formed out of the old 
empire of Sardanapalus. 

Arbaces, the revolting governor, was first king, and, 
according to Ctesias, he had eight successors. But 
this kingdom could only have been a part of Media. 
The majority of the Medes broke off from Arbaces, and 
undertook a freer form of government, and Dejoces 
gained a great fame among them for his wisdom. 

Herodotus, in his book Clio, gives a very minute 
history of Media, beginning with the entertaining 
story of the arts by which Dejoces made himself king, 
and describing the singularly built city of Ecbatana. 

Dejoces was succeeded by Phraortes, called, in the 
Hebrew Scriptures, Arphaxad. Either he or his son 
Cyaxares I. conquered a part of Persia, with the assist- 
ance of the Assyrian Nebuchadnezzar, who seems to 
have gained some power over the Median king ; for it 
is recorded, that Cyaxares I. shook off his yoke. 
Cyaxares I. was a great warrior : nevertheless, through 
twenty-eight years of his reign, the Scythians in- 
vaded and held dominion over Media. At last they 
were overcome by a stratagem of Cyaxares, who 
invited ail their chiefs to a festival, and there mur- 
dered them all, while a general massacre of then 


146 SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — MEDIA. 


followers took place simultaneously throughout the 
kingdom. After the Scythians had left Media, Cyaxa- 
res besieged Nineveh, and, being joined by Nabo- 
polassar, king of Babylon, took and destroyed it. 
Cyaxares then declared war against Lydia, because it 
had received with hospitality the fugitive Scythians. 
This war endured six years, and was abruptly termi- 
nated, on a day of battle, by an eclipse of the sun, 
which terrified both armies so that they laid down 
their arms. This eclipse fixes the date B. C. 601. A 
treaty of peace was mediated between the Lydians and 
Medes, by a king of Cilicia, and it was cemented by 
the marriage of Aryeihs, daughter of Alyattes, king 
of Lydia, with Astyages, son of Cyaxares. Cyaxares 
I. died six years after this, and left Media of great 
extent; for he had conquered, with the aid of the king 
of Babylon, a great part of Assyria, Susiana, Persia, 
Cappadocia, Pont us, and Armenia. 

Astyages, whose history should be read in Herodo- 
tus, was a powerful king, who did not, however, much 
augment his territories, but who carried life to the 
highest degree of pomp and luxury. He was the 
grandfather of Cyrus, and father of Cyaxares II. On 
being insulted by Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, he 
went against him, accompanied by his son and grand- 
son, and beat him in battle. 

Cyaxares II. is not mentioned by Herodotus, but is 
spoken of in the Bible as Darius the Mede ; sometimes, 
also, as Artaxerxes, and sometimes as Ahasuerus. 
There is some question whether or not it was he 
who was the hero of the book of Esther. He was 
fond of luxury and tranquillity; but Neriglissor, king 
of Babylon, envied him his luxuries and splendors, and 
made a league against him with Croesus of Lydia. 
This produced, on the other hand, a league between 
Cyrus and Cyaxares to destroy him, which resulted in 
the conquest of Lydia, and afterwards of Babylon. 

Cyaxares II. probably left to Cyrus all the real 
action in these wars, and hence was forgotten, which 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 147 


accounts for Herodotus not even knowing his name. 
He married his only daughter to Cyrus, and dying two 
years after the conquest of Babylon, Media and Persia 
became one kingdom, which comprehended more than 
all the old kingdom of Sardanapalus. 

About a century after, when Alexander was making 
his conquests, that portion of Media situated between 
Mount Taurus and the Caspian Sea was defended by 
Atro pates, and, after Alexander’s death, he erected it 
into the kingdom of Media Atropatia. A subsequent 
king, Timarchus, in the second century before Christ, 
defended it against Demetrius Soter. In the first cen- 
tury before Christ, two kings are mentioned : one 
Mithridates, who allied himself with Mithridates the 
Great, king of Pontus, against the Roman Luc till us : 
another, Darius, who, in the same alliance, vanquished 
Pompey. This Media afterwards was conquered by 
the Parthians, B. C. 30. 


EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 

These old kingdoms are at present the subject of 
great researches, which rather unsettle the old stories 
of Herodotus. These, however, can be read, in his 
second book, Euterpe. Heeren’s Egypt, in the second 
volume of the African Researches, and Heeren’s Ethi- 
opia, in the first volume of the same, also Bunsen’s 
Egypt, and Wilkinson’s books, are sources of informa- 
tion. 

Unquestionably Ethiopia was the older nation. 
The Caucasian race founded the state of Meroe in an 
unknown antiquity. The most ancient temple of 
Jupiter Ammon was there. Thebes was subsequently 
built and colonized, and also the Libyan Ammonia, by 
colonies from Meroe. From Thebes the same civiliza- 
tion and religion crept up the Nile, mingling with, and 
modified by, a worship of the Earth, which some older 


148 SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 


inhabitants held. We do not know when the shepherd 
kings entered Egypt. They were driven out before 
Moses delivered the Israelites ; and about that time 
commenced the splendid era of Egypt, of which there 
are such magnificent testimonies among the ruins of 
Thebes. 

Egypt was frequently conquered by the Ethiopians. 
Ethiopia was never conquered by the Egyptians, but 
the intermediate Nubia passed and repassed from one 
power to another. The Ethiopians had queens among 
their sovereigns, and seem always to have preserved 
more of the European character than the Egyptians did. 

With Psammetichus (B. C. 656) begins the part of 
the history of Egypt which is preserved by Herodotus 
and others.' His story is well told by Herodotus, and 
the singular way in which he came to the throne, and 
became implicated with Greeks. During his reign, 
the Scythians, who were residing in Media, made an 
advance upon Egypt ; but the diplomacy of Psammeti- 
chus turned them back. His son, Nechao, who suc- 
ceeded, (B. C. 617,) attempted to conquer Nabopolas- 
sar, and did take possession of many of his cities, but 
was in turn driven away by Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopo- 
lassar’s son. Nechao sent a naval expedition round 
Africa. His son Psammis (B. C. 601) is mentioned 
by Herodotus. He only reigned six years, and was 
succeeded by Apries, who lost the kingdom to Amasis, 
(B. C. 570.) Apries figures a great deal in the Hebrew 
Scriptures, under the name of Pharaoh Hophra. Ama- 
sis was a splendid king, visited by Solon, and very 
friendly to the Greeks, whose temple of Delphi he 
contributed money to rebuild, when it had been burnt. 
He embroiled himself with Cambyses thus : Cambyses 
sent to him for his daughter, and he sent, instead of 
her, the daughter of the deposed king Apries. When 
Cambyses learned this cheat, he set out immediately 
to conquer Egypt. But Amasis died before Cambyses 
arrived, and his son Psammenitus was soon conquered. 
Cambyses at first granted him some grace ; but on find- 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — EG YPT AND ETHIOPIA. 140 


ing that the vanquished king could not live a good 
subject, he caused him to drink bull’s blood, which 
killed him, six months after he had ascended the 
throne. (B. O. 626.) 

Thus Egypt became a province of Persia. But it 
frequently revolted, and, in the third year of Artaxerxes 
Longimanus’s reign, (B. C. 463,) Inarus was elected 
king of Egypt. By the assistance of the Athenians, 
he succeeded in obtaining great victories over the Per- 
sians ; but at last he was vanquished, and carried to 
Susa, where he was crucified. He was avenged by 
Amyrtaeus of Sais, who expelled the Persians from 
Egypt, and became king, in the tenth year of Darius 
Nothus, (B. C. 414.) He was, however, vanquished 
and killed in battle, and the two succeeding kings of 
Egypt, Pausiris and Psammenitus II., only reigned in 
subjection to the Persians. Nephereus (B. C. 395) 
and Achoris (B. C. 389) made war with Persia by the 
assistance of the Lacedemonians and others. Of Psam- 
Ynuthis and Nepheritus nothing is known. Their 
reigns were very short. Nectanabys I. (B. C. 375) 
was attacked by the Persians, but defended by an in- 
undation of the Nile, which drove his enemies out of 
the country. Tachos, his succfessor, (B. C. 363,) be- 
ing attacked by the Persians, had recourse to the Lace- 
demonians for aid, who sent Agesilaus to assist him ; 
but Tachos did not take his advice, and, being worsted 
in Phoenicia, and hearing, while there, that Nectana- 
bys II. was placed on the throne, and that Agesilaus 
was assisting him, he fled to Persia. 

Nectanabys II., by following the advice of Agesilaus, 
confirmed himself on his throne, notwithstanding the 
formidable revolt of a competitor. He then entered 
into an alliance with the Phoenicians, who had revolted 
against Persia, which drew upon him the vengeance 
of Darius Ochus, who went against him in person, and 
conquered Egypt, Nectanabys escaping to Ethiopia. 

Nineteen years after, (B. C. 331,) Alexander the 
Great conquered Egypt, which had then been mean- 
13* 


150 SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 


while without any king, and founded there Alex- 
andria. 

Ptolemy Lagus was the son of a concubine of Philip 
II. of Macedonia, and was for a time a general in 
Alexander’s army. To him fell Egypt by lot, after 
Alexander’s death. There were, in the next three cen- 
turies, thirteen Ptolemies and several Cleopatras, all of 
this line, sovereigns of Egypt. Ptolemy Lagus obtained 
possession of the body of Alexander the Great, and had 
it buried in great pomp in Alexandria, and built a temple 
there to Alexander, and instituted games to his honor. 
He conquered Syria and Phoenicia, but was obliged 
soon to render them up to the kings of Syria. The 
same occurred with respect to Cyprus, but he retained 
Rhodes, and received from the Rhodians the surname 
of Soter, because he defended them against the assaults 
of Demetrius. At the battle of Ipsus, Ptolemy Lagus, 
in confederacy with Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Oas- 
sander, defeated Antigonus and Demetrius Poliorcetes, 
and Ptolemy then obtained Coelo-Syria and Palestine. * 
After this, he gave himself up to the arts of peace, 
built the museum, and founded the Alexandrian library. 
He left his throne (B. C. 285) to Ptolemy Philadel- 
phia, who earned that name by the succors he granted 
to Ptolemy Ceraunus in his enterprise of seizing the 
throne of Macedonia. The fete that signalized the 
accession of Ptolemy Philadelphia is the most splen- 
did recorded in antiquity. It was a representation of 
the whole life of Bacchus, and is described in Mont- 
faucon’s Antiquities. 

Ptolemy Philadelphus had to make war against three 
of his brothers, who conspired against him. Meleager 
and Argseus were condemned to death. Magus recon- 
ciled himself to him by giving his daughter in marriage 
to Philadelphus’s son, on the promise of their suc- 
cession. Philadelphus encouraged the fine arts and 
literature, and founded a commerce for Egypt, which 
soon became the emporium of the world. In this 
reign, the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scrip- 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 151 


tures into Greek was made, the original copy being 
furnished by the high priest of Jerusalem. The history 
of Egypt by Manetho was also written in this reign. 

Philadelphus’s daughter Berenice was married to 
Antiochus Theos, who repudiated his wife Laodice to 
marry the Egyptian princess. 

B. C. 247. Ptolemy Evergetes was immediately in- 
volved in a war with Syria, to revenge the death of 
his sister Berenice, who was repudiated by Antiochus, 
as soon as Philadelphus was dead, and poisoned by 
Laodice. He conquered all Syria, even to the Tigris, 
and brought back to Egypt twenty-five hundred im- 
ages of gods which Cambyses had carried off. Hence 
the Egyptians called him Evergetes, the Beneficent . 
His wife Berenice, when he went on his expedition 
into Syria, consecrated her hair, vowing to cut it oft' 
if he returned safe. On his return, she performed her 
vow, and he put it in a temple that Philadelphus had 
built in honor of his wife Arsinoe, in Cyprus. Some 
time after, it was lost, and Conon, the mathematician, 
said that the gods had carried it to heaven, and point- 
ing out seven stars near the tail of the Lion, said that 
was the hair of Berenice. His conquest of Syria did 
not stand. Seleucus, son of Antiochus Theos, recov- 
ered his kingdom, and a treaty of peace took place. 
He patronized and cultivated letters, and many emi- 
nent men resided at his court ; among others, Theoc- 
ritus, the Greek poet. He made great conquests in 
Arabia, even to Ethiopia, and assisted Cleomenes, king 
of Sparta, against Antigonus of Macedonia, receiving 
him at his own court when he was obliged to fly from 
Greece. He promised to replace him on his throne, 
but death prevented. 

B. C. 222. Ptolemy Philopator was so named in irony, 
for he is believed to have poisoned his father. His. life 
was a tissue of extravagances and horrors : and he died 
prematurely, (B. C. 205,) leaving Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
only five years old. The guardian of this child, Aris- 
tomenes, finding that the kings of Syria and Macedo- 


152 SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 


nia intended to divide the kingdom of Ptolemy bet ween 
themselves, sent to the Romans and asked their aid, 
which was given with effect. Aristomenes faithfully 
discharged his duties, but, when his ward came to the 
throne, was soon made an object of hatred, and poi- 
soned by the command of the young king. This was 
an earnest of Epiphanes’s worthless and cruel character. 
He was poisoned, (R. C. 181,) 'and his son Philomator 
succeeded, under the guardianship of his mother, 
Cleopatra. Philomator had a war with Antiochus 
Epiphanes, for the possession of Coelo-Syria, in which 
Antiochus Epiphanes had the better, and the Egyptian 
king fell into Antiochus’s hands. He was worthless, 
and the Egyptians set up his brother Physcon in his 
place. Rut at length the dispute between Egypt and 
Syria was decided by the Romans, who sent orders to 
Antiochus to leave Egypt. Afterwards, in the quarrel 
that ensued between Philomator and Physcon, the 
Romans adjudged Cyprus, Libya, and Cyrene to Phys- 
con, and the rest to Philomator. This, however, only 
excited new strife ; but, at length, they were recon- 
ciled. Philomator perished in a war in Syria, and 
Physcon succeeded him, and married his widow. (R. C. 
146.) Philomator encouraged arts, sciences, and com- 
merce. So, indeed, did Physcon, who was himself an 
author ; but his life was filled with the most frightful 
atrocities. He was succeeded by Ptolemy Lathyrus, 
(R. C. 117,) although his mother, Cleopatra, preferred 
his brother Alexander. 

The history of these two Ptolemies and their 
mother is a curiosity, for the unnatural crimes it 
involves against each other. First, Cleopatra endeav- 
ored to prevent Lathyrus from obtaining the throne j 
but not succeeding in getting that for Alexander, she 
made the latter king of Cyprus. Then she hired some 
eunuchs to swear that Lathyrus had attempted to 
assassinate her, and thus raised such an excitement 
against him, that he hardly succeeded in escaping to 
Syria. Alexander was then recalled from Cyprus, and 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 153 


Lathyrus took his place there. Cleopatra now seemed 
to have her will, in putting Alexander on the throne 
of Egypt; but she usurped all the authority herself, 
and, not content with that, at last attempted to put 
him to death. Alexander, learning this, had her assas- 
sinated. The Egyptians, however, finding out the par- 
ricide, drove him from the throne. Then Lathyrus 
took the throne again. Immediately, Thebes revolted 
from him, and attempted to make itself independent. 
He besieged it three years, and having taken it, gave it 
up to be pillaged by his soldiers, who reduced it to 
ruins. Ptolemy Lathyrus was succeeded by his daugh- 
ter Cleopatra Berenice. (All the sons of this family 
were named Ptolemy, and all the daughters Cleopatra.) 
After six months, she was married to Alexander, son 
of the late Alexander, that had contended with her 
father. He had been an adventurous youth, and came 
at length under the protection of Sylla, who brought 
about this match. But, in less than a month, he poi- 
soned her. His reign was full of baseness and horrors, 
and, on the death of his friend Sylla, the Egyptians 
drove him from the throne. Ptolemy Auletes, a natu- 
ral son of Lathyrus, now became king, but was driven 
from his throne by his subjects, who were disgusted 
with his character. While he was gone, his daughter 
Berenice was made queen ; and, the Egyptians wishing 
a king, she married Seleucus, brother of the king of 
Syria ; but afterwards had him strangled, for his ava- 
rice in robbing the tomb of Alexander the Great. She 
then married Archelaus, a high priest of Pontus. But 
Auletes, after years of fawning upon the Romans, at 
length obtained help from Pompey, who sent Gabinius, 
governor of Syria, and his lieutenant, Mark Antony, to 
put Auletes on the throne. They did so, though 
Archelaus defended himself with great valor. Auletes 
did nothing but evil to his subjects ; and when he died, 
he left his children to the protection of the Romans. 
These children were Cleopatra and Ptolemy Dionysius. 
The last was a minor ; and his guardians, wishing to 


154 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — LYDIA. 


rule, drove Cleopatra, (who was not a minor,) from the 
throne. She went to her sister Arsinoe, in Syria, and 
there raised an army, intending to recover her rights 
by force. Just at this time, the battle of Pharsalia 
took place, and Ptolemy withdrew to Egypt, expecting 
a safe asylum with the son of Auletes, who had owed to 
him his reestablishment. But the young king had the 
baseness to allow him to be murdered, in the purpose 
of conciliating Caesar. OmCaesar’s arrival in Egypt, 
a war broke out, in which Ptolemy was destroyed, and 
Cleopatra was placed by Caesar on the throne. She 
was immediately married to her younger brother, 
according to the Egyptian custom. But some years 
after, Cleopatra had him poisoned, in order to reign 
alone. She was, for a time, mistress of Caesar, by 
whom she had a son, Caesarion. After Caesar’s death, 
she captivated Mark Antony, and their life together is 
a curiosity of voluptuous extravagances. In the war 
between Octavius and Antony, she was vanquished ; 
and she killed herself on hearing of Antony’s death. 
Egypt was then a Roman province, till it was conquered 
by the Saracens. 


LYDIA. 

The history of Lydia is given in Herodotus’s first 
book Clio, which tells anecdotes of its kings, from 
Candaules to Croesus, inclusive. He says Candaules 
was the last of the Heracleidic kings, and that these 
were preceded by another dynasty. He also tells of a 
colony which went from Lydia into Etruria, at an 
early period. Now Henne derives from all these hints 
of Herodotus quite a different view from that which 
Herodotus held. 

He believes that the Lydians were originally one of 
the Pelasgic nations of Southern Europe, and that the 
Pelasgic Lydians were in Italy long before they were 
in Asia. The Heracleidic kings were of the second 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — GREECE. 


155 


branch of the white race ; and there was a time when 
this people dwelt south of the Hsemus Mountains, 
where Herodotus says were the gardens of Gordias 
and Midas. Subsequently they went into Asia Minor, 
attracted by the rich gifts of nature to that region. 
This criticism explains many things ; especially the 
strongly European character of the Lydian ideas. (The 
history of the transfer of power from the last of the 
Heracleidae to the Mermnadse, and the anecdotes of 
the several kings of this dynasty, are so well told by 
Herodotus, that the whole is omitted here, the more 
surely to induce young students to study Herodotus.) 

Croesus, the last king of Lydia, had conquered the 
Grecian cities on the Asiatic side of the Archipelago, 
and made them tributary to him. When he was con- 
quered by Cyrus, they passed into the Persian power, 
though not without some hard fighting. 


GREECE. 

The Pelasgian kingdoms of Greece, and their uncer- 
tain chronology, have already been mentioned. Among 
these Pelasgian kingdoms were Arcadia, Argos, Sicyon, 
Corinth, Megara, Pelasgia (afterwards Haemonia, Thes- 
saly, and Epirus,) Laconia, Bceotia, Phocis, Messenia, 
and Attica (then called Ogygia.) But, at the time of 
the Trojan war, we find from Homer, that the name 
of Pelasgians had given way to that of Achaeans, Ar- 
gives, &c. Argos is called an Achaean city, and all 
the Greeks are often called Argives by the poet ; Argos 
being then the greatest city. The descendants of 
Pelops, a wealthy Phrygian, who was said to have 
emigrated from Asia Minor, had given the name of 
Peloponnesus to the peninsulabefore called Apia ; and he 
and his sons had contrived to connect themselves in mar- 
riage with ail the royal families. Sparta was governed 
by his great-grandson Menelaus, and Argos by his 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


1*56 


great-grandson Agamemnon. The occasion of the war 
was the loss of Menelaus’s wife, and the commander- 
in-chief was Agamemnon. 

From Homer, the oldest author of Greece whose 
works are extant, the first impressions of it had best 
be taken. Cowper’s translation of Homer is quite 
common in this country.* The second book, in giving 
an account of the fleet, gives the geography and rela- 
tions of the tribes at the period which is treated, 
which was some two 'hundred years before the age of 
Homer. Another poet contemporary, Hesiod, in his 
Works and Days, gives the tone of thought and princi- 
ple which transpired among the Dorians in Boeotia. 
From these two poets we have the warlike and the 
domestic sides of Greece at a certain period. 


ATHENS 

Is the city of Greece whose history goes back contin- 
uously to the highest antiquity. Upon the Pelasgiati 
Ogygia came, it is said, an Egyptian colonist, and 
founded the Acropolis. His name was Cecrops, and he 
was the first of seven kings. His successors were 
Cranaus, Amphictyon, Erichthonius, JEgasus, Theseus, 
Mnestheus, and Codrus. Their histories are wrapped 
in mythology. With Erichthonius is connected the 
history of Hercules, which must be sought in a classi- 
cal dictionary. Plutarch, whose life of Hercules is 
lost, wrote a life of Theseus, collecting all the traditions 
of the time. It was written twelve or thirteen centu- 
ries later, and we must remember this in reading it. 
With Theseus’s name was inextricably associated the 
most liberal things in the early political constitution of 
Athens. Mnestheus was the king who went to the 


# The Iliad has just been published by Putnam, of New York, 
at a moderate price. 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


157 


Trojan war. Codrus was the last king of Athens, and 
of him is told a remarkable story of self-devotion. 
Athens was threatened by an invasion of the Dorians, 
and the oracle had said that that people should »prevail 
whose king fell in the battle. When the armies were 
encamped near each other, Codrus disguised himself, 
and going into the enemy’s camp, provoked a soldier, 
who killed him. Soon afterwards, according to a pre- 
concerted plan, the Athenians sent for “the body of 
their king.” At this, the hostile army, panic-struck, 
raised their camp ; and thus the conquest of the Do- 
rians did not extend over Attica. 

On Codrus’s death, the title of king was abolished, 
it being said that no one, after Codrus, could deserve to 
wear the title. But his son succeeded him as perpet- 
ual archon, subject, as indeed the king had been, to 
the constitution formed by Theseus. The perpetual 
archonship was changed into a decennial archonship, 
B. C. 754, and into an annual one, B. C. 684. 

This constitution did not answer all social purposes. 
After a while, as in all commercial free states, some of 
the people were greatly in debt, and Draco, the archon 
for the year, was called on to make laws. These laws 
punished every offence, small and great, with death, 
and were consequently said to be “ written in blood.” 
The severity defeated itself: no one would prosecute, 
and crimes and lawlessness increased. They then 
called upon Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece. 
The others were Periander of Corinth, Thales of Mile- 
tus, Pittacus of Mitylene, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus 
of Rhodes, and Chilo of Sparta. 

Solon made a constitution and laws. The history 
of him is given in a life by Plutarch. After he had 
finished it, he invited persons to criticise his work, and 
to ask explanations, where it was necessary. This 
brought upon him so many critics that he felt obliged 
to leave Athens for a season, that his plans might be 
tested by time. While he was gone, a distinguished 
citizen, Pisistratus, of great gifts of all kinds, and highly 


153 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


cultivated, obtained preeminence in the state. He 
represents, in a favorable manner, a class of men who 
were occasionally developed in all the democratical 
states of Greece ; leaders of the democracy, who ob- 
tained sovereign power, and were called tyrants, to 
distinguish them from what are called legitimate kings. 
The rule of Pisistratus was splendid, and Solon does 
not seem to have had a deadly opposition to it, Pisis- 
tratus also treated Solon with respect. Posterity is 
indebted to this tyrant for the valuable possession of 
Homer’s poems in writing. Previous to his time they 
had been handed down orally by bards, who sung 
them to the harp. The contrivances by which Pisis- 
tratus obtained his supremacy, are in truth the only 
unworthy things recorded of him. It is said that, 
being banished from the city, when first suspected of 
ambitious projects, he came into it in a chariot drawn 
by splendid horses, having sent before him the report 
that the goddess Minerva was bringing him back ; to 
confirm which, a gigantic woman, clad in the armor 
and helmet of Minerva, as described by Homer, acted 
as his charioteer. His talents and oratory secured him 
power when once he had possession. But when the 
opposition to him became formidable, he obtained a 
body-guard by another trick. He wounded himself, 
and then persuaded the people, by his oratory, to be- 
lieve that he had received these wounds. from aristo- 
crats because he was the friend of the people. They 
voted him the body-guard, and then he had all royal 
means of power ; and, by avoiding the name of king, 
succeeded in keepng a place really inconsistent with 
the constitution. During his time Cyrus flourished in 
Asia ; and the cities of Asia Minor, which had been 
conquered, and paid tribute to Croesus, king of Lydia, 
fell, by the fall of Croesus, into the power of Cyrus, 
and were definitively conquered by his lieutenant, Har- 
pagus. 

When Pisis-tratus died, his sons, Hipparchus and 
Hippias, succeeded him in power ; but they were not 


SKETCHES OE HISTOKY. — ATHENS. 


159 


guarded by the genius which rendered Pisistratus safe. 
Hipparchus is said to have taken liberties with an 
Athenian girl, and thus given immediate occasion for 
an outbreak. Her brothers, Harmodius and Aristo- 
geiton, assassinated Hipparchus, drove Hippias from 
Athens, and reestablished the republican government. 

In order to prevent any other individual from taking 
the predominance in the government that the Pisistrat- 
idae had done, the peculiar institution of the ostracism 
was established. This was a vote, written on a shell, 
banishing any citizen who seemed to the voter dan- 
gerous to the liberties of the city. A certain number 
of these votes could banish any man. It was a mis- 
fortune to any one who loved to live in Athens to fall 
under the ostracism, but no disgrace. Only distin- 
guished, noble men, as it proved, incurred the ostracism. 
When, during the Peloponnesian war, it fell upon a 
really mean and selfish demagogue, like Hyperbolus, 
the Athenians abolished it as demoralized ! 

Athens was a commercial city ; and, after the Greek 
cities of Asia fell under the power of the Persians, it 
became the first maritime power of Greece, and, under 
the lead of Themistocles, gave laws to the Island of 
Euboea, to the Cyclades, the Island of Lemnos, the 
Chersonese, and even to Thrace. 

About the beginning of the fifth century, when 
Darius was king of Persia, the Greek cities of Asia 
revolted against him, and sought aid in Greece. Athens 
was the only state that took any part ; but, in a fit of 
daring that seems marvellously great, when we consider 
the fearful odds between the dimensions of Athens and 
the domain of the great king, — which stretched from 
the Indus to the Nile, to the Mediterranean, and beyond 
the Black Sea into Europe, — the Athenians sent a 
little fleet across the Archipelago, and landed a small 
army, which went to Sardis and burnt it. Darius, 
astonished at this act, inquired who the Athenians 
were ; and being told their whereabouts, threatened 
vengeance. It is said that Hippias wa* in his court,’ 


160 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


and helped to foment his anger. Darius had other 
wars on his hands ; but he bade a servant, every day, 
at breakfast time, say to him, “ Remember the Athe- 
nians.” 

In a few years he had a fleet manned, and gave 
the command of it to Mardonius, who was to go and 
destroy Athens. But Mardonius kept his fleet close to 
shore, and a storm arising, he was wrecked on Mount 
Athos. In a few years after this disaster, another fleet, 
under the command of Datis and Artaphernes, crossed 
the Archipelago, and having ravaged some islands, a 
hundred and ten thousand men landed in Attica, and 
were met by the Athenians at Marathon. 

Only ten thousand Athenians met this army of a 
hundred and ten thousand (some say it was three hun- 
dred thousand) Persians, on the plains of Marathon, 
and utterly defeated them. The Greek leader for the 
day was Miltiades, who had formerly been a governor 
of the province of the Chersonese. Hippias was in 
the Persian army, and fell in this battle. 

This great victory checked the Persian war for ten 
years, and it is an era in the history of humanity. It 
proved the superiority of moral to physical force. 
Miltiades afterwards attempted an expedition against a 
revolted island, which did not succeed, and he was 
thrown into prison, because he could not pay the fine 
which he had incurred by this failure. He died in 
chains, the same year that the Roman tribune, who 
first proposed an agrarian law at Rome, was thrown 
from the Tarpeian rock. Thus do republics too often 
reward the best friends of the people. Themistoeles 
succeeded Miltiades as commander of the fleet ; and 
Aristides, whose praise is that he was just, became the 
administrator of the interior affairs. But the elevation 
and predominance his virtues gave him, exposed him 
to the ostracism. It has always been asserted and 
believed, that Themistoeles intrigued to produce this 
banishment. 

In 480 B. C., the long-threatened storm burst upon 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


161 


Greece. Xerxes I. inherited from his father the office 
of destroying Athens. He proposed to conquer all 
Greece, and brought into it a prodigious army. At 
Thermopylae he received a sign of what was to be his 
fate. His whole army was detained three days by the 
Greeks at that pass, and his ranks were mowed clown. 
Even when, by the treachery of a Greek, he was 
shown a path over the mountains, he still only obtained 
a passage after having killed three hundred Lacedaemo- 
nians, who chose to fight to the last, to let him know 
that Greece would never surrender its liberties. 

He then, however, poured down into Attica. But 
Themistocies had persuaded the Athenians to leave 
their city, and to fight on the sea, having sheltered 
their wives and children at Salamis. Xerxes came to 
a city nearly empty ; but he carried ruin and desolation 
over the whole country, and destroyed Athens, its walls 
and harbor. He then proceeded to the western side, 
where Attica overlooks the Bay of Salamis, and where 
the fleets of the Greeks and the Persians had a memo- 
rable battle. It is said that Xerxes, on that shore, 
reviewed his immense fleet, and wept to think that in 
a hundred years it would all be gone. It greatly out- 
numbered the Grecian fleet. But the Grecian fleet 
had the best position, as well as the best cause ; and 
their victory over the Persians was complete. Xerxes 
witnessed the battle, and fled in consternation on seeing 
the result. He was terrified at this spirited nation of 
Greeks. He was told that the Athenian fleet intended 
to sail to the Bosphorus, where he was to cross into 
Persia ; and his great desire was to arrive and pass 
before they could do this. He left his general, Mardo- 
nius, with three hundred thousand men, to winter in 
Thessaly and renew the war in the spring. When he 
arrived at the Hellespont, he found the bridge of boats, 
by which he had passed into Europe, destroyed by a 
storm ; and he crossed into Asia in a little boat, almost 
alone. Mardonius, the next spring, advanced and met 
the land army of the Greeks at Plateea, in Boeotia, just 
14 * 


162 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. —ATHENS. 


north of Attica. The confederated Greeks were one 
hundred and ten thousand, and they completely routed 
Mardonius, with his three hundred thousand — Mardo- 
nius himself being one of the first to fall. On the 
same day, the fleet of the Greeks gained the victory 
of Mycale, on the other side of the Achipelago, the 
immediate consequence of which was the transporta- 
tion of the field of war into Asia, and the recovery of 
tiieir independence by the Greek cities of Asia Minor. 

During this Persian war, Aristides had shown his 
magnanimity, by bringing to the Greeks some impor- 
tant information, and was recalled from banishment, 
with the good will of Themistocles. Themistocles 
immediately set to work to rebuild the walls of Athens. 
It is said that the Spartans opposed this, fearing, as it 
proved too justly, that Athens would now get an unfair 
predominance in Greece. But Themistocles amused 
them with the appearance of negotiation, while he set 
all the men, women, and children of Athens to the 
work of building ; and the first thing the Spartans 
knew, was, that the walls of Athens, and the walls of 
the harbor Piraeus, and the seven miles long walls con- 
necting the two, were rebuilt ! 

The preeminence of the Athenians, as the object of 
the Persian war, together with their extraordinary con- 
duct ill it, naturally placed them at the head of the 
confederation. Aristides and Cimon, the son of Milti- 
ades, became the- leaders of Greece. They were noble 
men. Plutarch has written the lives of Themistocles, 
Aristides, and Cimon, and he gives in them a very 
good account of the war. Herodotus, who was living 
all through it, makes it the apex of his noble pyramid 
of history. 

Athens now went to the height of intellectual glory. 
Its mighty achievement of defending itself success- 
fully against the great king, who combined all material 
power, gave it a self-respect, stimulating it to the 
highest efforts of genius. iEschylus carried tragedy to 
its highest degree of grandeur. The old comedy was 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


153 


brought to perfection. In order to appreciate these 
things, the student should read the first lectures of 
A. W. Schlegel, upon the History of Dramatic Poetry. 

Themistocles now fell under the ostracism, and 
Cimon became the leader of the fleet : and after the 
death of Aristides, he rendered tributary to Athens a 
large number of the states of Greece ; leaving to them 
their sailors and soldiers, but increasing their contribu- 
tions to the general fund which was established for the 
defence of Greece as a whole. He assisted the kings 
of Egypt to rebel against the power of Persia ; but he 
was immediately after banished by the ostracism. In 
ten years he was recalled, and put at the head of an 
expedition against the Persians ; and, by the battle of 
the Eurymedon, he so completely turned the scale of 
power in favor of the Greeks, that he dictated to the 
king of Persia a treaty of peace, by which that monarch, 
the son of Xerxes, bound himself to leave the Greek 
cities free, and not to allow any Persian to come 
within thirty miles of the Grecian seas. Cimon did 
not long survive this act. He died B. C. 450. 

The leading power in Athens was then taken by 
Pericles, after a short struggle with Thucydides, who 
was banished by ostracism, to which banishment, 
doubtless, the world owes his history of the Pelopon- 
nesian war. It is a grand spectacle to see how mag- 
nanimously Thucydides has immortalized with his pen 
the great administration of his rival Pericles. The 
name of Pericles recalls all that is splendid in Grecian 
science and art. This age is adorned with the names 
of Hippocrates, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, and his 
companion philosophers ; of Phidias, AEschylus, Soph- 
ocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, all inhabitants of 
Athens ; while Pindar and Corinne lived in other parts 
of Greece. 

To Pericles’s plan of keeping Athens the predomi- 
nant power in Greece, by crippling the Lacedaemonians, 
was owing the Peloponnesian war. Its immediate 
occasion was a struggle between Corinth and its colony 


164 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


at Corcyra. The Athenians and Lacedaemonians took 
different sides in this quarrel. During the first years 
of this terrible war, every spring the king of Sparta 
came with an army and ravaged the country of Attica. 
On the other hand, the Athenians went out with their 
fleet all around Peloponnesus, and ravaged its coasts. 
The yearly invasion of Attica drove the inhabitants 
into the city of Athens, of which all had the right of 
citizenship. It was this crowding of the city, and 
deprivation of the country residence hitherto permitted 
the citizen, which, doubtless, produced the terrible 
plague in Athens, that raged more or less ever after- 
wards. It was this plague which drove Hippoc- 
rates to Athens ; and he was the physician of Peri- 
cles, who died of the disease in the third year of the 
war. Before he died, however, the city of Poti- 
daea, in Thrace, was taken, which had been besieged 
for three years; and, two years after, Plataea, which 
was besieged three years by the Lacedaemonians, was 
taken and destroyed, and the Island of Lesbos aban- 
doned the Athenian party. But the Athenians took 
Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, the next year, and 
their general, Demosthenes, transported the seat of war 
into Peloponnesus, and did so much harm, for two 
years, — taking prisoners four hundred and twenty 
heads of families at Sphalacteria, and getting possession 
of the Island of Cythera, — that the Spartans sued for 
peace, and a treaty actually took place, in which the 
Athenians restored the prisoners of Sphalacteria ; Bras- 
idas gaining at that moment decided advantages, in 
Thrace, over the Athenians. But the next year the 
two parties were in arms again; the Athenians were 
beaten at Amphipolis, in Thrace, and both the Athe- 
nian Cleon and the Lacedaemonian Brasidas perished in 
the battle. 

Nicias and Alcibiades now became the predominant 
men in Athens. Nicias was the older, and inclined to 
peace. He actually concluded a treaty for fifty years, 
which was apparently observed for six, but really 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


U6 


broken in a year; for Alcibiades formed a league 
between several states against Sparta, and obtained of 
the Athenians important aid to it, notwithstanding the 
opposi.ion of Nicias. This league took possession of 
Orchomenos, and made the siege of Tegsea, Alcibiades 
sending a reinforcement to them of fifteen hundred 
men. The Athenians were terribly violent in their 
action, within the confederation, against any states who 
seemed lukewarm or hostile towards their interests. 
They made a terrible slaughter at Sic yon, when it 
revolted. They took possession of Melos, and de- 
stroyed every male over fourteen years of age. In 415 
B. C., through the influence of Alcibiades, and against 
the advice of Nicias, the Athenians undertook a great 
expedition to Sicily. This war of the Dorians and 
Ionians extended even into Sicily ; and a year or two 
before, some of the Greek cities of Sicily had implored 
aid of the Athenians, against some other Greek cities. 
This formed the pretext for the expedition of the 
Athenians, which was nearly exhaustive of their means, 
both as to men and money. It was probably unfortu- 
nate for this adventure, that Alcibiades, who was the 
soul of it, should be recalled, almost as soon as he 
reached there, to defend himself from a charge of sac- 
rilege, which was probably false. Finding that he 
was condemned to death at Athens, Alcibiades took 
refuge in Sparta itself; where, it is said, he introduced 
unbridled license of manners, even into the king’s 
palace. Nicias, in the mean while, besieged Syracuse. 
The Spartans sent aid, and besieged the besiegers. Then 
the Athenian Demosthenes came with a fleet upon the 
Spartans ; but, after all, the expedition finally and ter- 
ribly failed. The weather was against them. Nicias 
and his whole army became sick. They were not only 
defeated, but Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death, 
and all that survived of their army sold as slaves. 

At the same moment, a general confederation of the 
Greeks, both of Europe and Asia, was made against 
the Athenians, and Alcibiades had the command of the 


168 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


fleet. The Athenians had not, however, lost all their 
allies. They now collected a fleet, and approached 
the Island of Samos. At the approach of conflict 
between the Lacedasmonians and Athenians, Alcibiades 
found himself unwilling to fight against his country- 
men, and he abandoned the party of Lacedaemon, and 
withdrew to the court of the Persian satrap Tissa- 
phernes. This act conciliated the Athenians, and they 
recalled him to take command of their fleet. He gained 
two battles for them, and reentered Athens in triumph. 
Soon after, he left it again, to subdue the revolted 
Ionia, and his place was filled by ten generals. 

During the Peloponnesian war, the relations of 
Greece and Persia changed. The old enmity of all the 
Greeks to Persians was lost sight of in the rage of 
civil strife. Both parties endeavored to make friends 
of the great king, against one another. At this con- 
juncture, Cyrus the Younger became governor of Asia 
Minor, and gave pecuniary means to Ly sander, the 
Spartan king, to crush the Athenians. At first the for- 
tune of war wavered ; now the Lacedaemonians, then 
the Athenians, predominated. Conon, the Athenian 
general, was blockaded at Mitylene, by Callicratidas, 
the Lacedaemonian ; afterwards, Callicratidas was van- 
quished and killed by the Athenians, at Arginus ; 
finally, the great battle of iEgos-potamos was gained 
by Lysander over the Athenians, and he sailed imme- 
diately to Athens, took it, and ended the Peloponnesian 
war, after twenty-seven years of fighting. 

The walls of Athens were razed, and a government 
of thirty Athenians was established over the long 
sovereign democracy. Their terrible rule gained for 
them the name of the Thirty Tyrants. By their 
order, Alcibiades was assassinated in Phrygia, whither 
he had retreated. The next year, Thrasybulus suc- 
ceeded in deposing them, and putting in their place a 
Council of Ten ; but this succeeding no better, in a 
year he deposed them, and reestablished a ’republican 
government, but proclaimed a general amnesty. While 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. —ATHENS. 


167 


the Ten yet ruled, however, Socrates, the philosopher, 
was put to death. This is no place to tell that noble 
and venerable story. His own “ Apology,” which 
Plato has preserved, tells the great meaning of his life 
and death. Every man and woman ought to know 
by heart those four conversations of Plato’s, which are 
especially biographical of Socrates, — the Eutyphron, 
the Apology, the Crito, and the Phaedo. The first 
shows that Socrates was a monotheist, seeking God 
through moral exercise ; the second tells the secret 
of his great life ; the third shows his principles and 
feelings, as a citizen and patriot ; and the fourth tells 
the story of his death. 

About five years after, Athens had so far recovered 
itself as to rebuild its long walls, and to begin to 
reassert itself on the Grecian seas. In 389, Thrasybu- 
lus took Byzantium, and subjected Lesbos and Chios. 
The republic of Athens rose after the Peloponnesian 
war, at the same time that Rome was recovering from 
the invasion of the Gauls. It gave hospitality to Pe- 
lopidas and Epaminondas, and the other refugees from 
Thebes, when the Lacedaemonians took possession of 
that city, and it assisted them to return soffie three or 
four years after, and restore the independence of their 
native city. In 358, Ohio, Cos, Rhodes, and Byzan- 
tium, rose against Athens, and after two years, recov- 
ered their independence. This is called the social war 
of Greece. In 355, the Athenians took part in the 
sacred war, on the side of Phocis. Into this war 
Philip II. of Macedon entered, and gained the leading 
place ; and, being conqueror, was admitted into the 
Amphictyonic Council, — a representative assembly of 
all the states of Greece, — and then began the Macedo- 
nian domination. Phocion and Demosthenes were 
then the leading men of Athens ; they gave contrary 
advice to the Athenians as to their conduct with regard 
to Philip, and the Athenians, endeavoring to follow the 
counsels of both, did no justice to the plans of either. 
The particulars may be found in Plutarch’s lives of 


168 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ATHENS. 


Demosthenes and of Phocion. By the battle of Cher- 
onea, which Philip gained during the second sacred 
war, (against the Locrians,) the Macedonian domina- 
tion in Greece became supreme, and Philip was named 
generalissimo of the Greeks against Persia. 

By his sudden death, and the accession of Alexan- 
der, aged only twenty, the states of Greece were led 
to think that the Macedonian sway might be broken. 
The Athenians, therefore, leagued with the Thebans 
and others. But Alexander immediately showed of 
what spirit he was. He destroyed Thebes, and the 
Athenians hastened to make peace with him. 

After the death of Alexander the Great, and the 
division of his empire among his generals. Athens was 
frequently the subject of siege by one and another. 
Polysperchon at first took possession of it, and Phocion 
was put to death. At another time, Demetrius Polior- 
cetes had possession of it ; he then lost it for a season, 
and regained it ; lost it again, and again got possession 
of it ; but, in 287, it became nominally free, with 
other Grecian cities, in consequence of the league 
formed against Demetrius Poliorcetes, while he was in 
Asia, endeavoring to recover the dominions claimed by 
his father, Antigonus. In 268, his son, Antigonus of 
Goni, took possession of Athens. In 233, it joined 
the Achasan league, which was the last effort of Gre- 
cian liberty. In 196, it shared in the general exulta- 
tion of Greece in being delivered from the Macedonian 
supremacy, by means of the great battle of Cynocepha- 
le, gained by the Roman Flaminius, (see Plutarch’s 
life of Flaminius,) but found this a deceptive joy, and 
became, in 146, together with the rest of Greece, a 
Roman province. When it was taken from the Roman 
dominion by Archelaus, in the first Mithridatic war, 
Sylla was sent from Rome against Mithridates, and he 
besieged and took Athens, and exercised frightful 
cruelties in its sack. After that time, it still continued 
eminent as a School, and Cicero obtained much of his 
education and accomplishments there. 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SPARTA. 


169 


SPARTA. 

Sparta was first a Pelasgian kingdom. Then it fell 
under the power of the descendants of Pelops, as we 
find it in the Trojan war. After the Trojan war, the 
Dorians, from the north of Greece, penetrated into Pel- 
oponnesus, and gradually established a predominance 
over all its kingdoms there, driving the old inhabitants 
into different localities, many of them entirely out of 
the peninsula, into the colonies of Asia Minor and 
Magna Grcecia, (for so the south of Italy was named, 
probably on account of this emigration, which studded 
all its coasts with Grecian cities.) Sparta became a 
metropolitan city, as it were, to the Dorians. Its two 
kings, though greatly limited in political power, had a 
kind of divine honor attributed to them, on account 
of their birth. They were the heads of the Heracleidic 
tribe, and took the throne by hereditary right. The 
early history of the Dorian Lacedaemon is little known. 
Karl Otfried Muller, author of the History of the Do- 
rians, criticizes the traditions, and shows that much of 
Plutarch’s life of Lycurgus is a romance. Doubtless 
there was such a person of the royal family, who would 
not abuse his opportunity as guardian of an infant 
king, to take the sacred place. He also, doubtless, 
was especially active in preserving and developing the 
constitution of the state. But most of the laws Plu- 
tarch ascribes to Lycurgus were the current laws of 
all Dorian states, and derived from a higher antiquity, 
while some of the constitutional peculiarities he men- 
tions were the amendments or corruptions of ages 
long subsequent to Lycurgus. Plutarch also does no 
justice to the moral and 'aesthetic character of the Lace- 
daemonians. 

The Dorians did not subject Messenia so soon as 
they did Laconia, and their recorded history involves 
several wars with the Messenians. In the second of 
these, the Messenian Aristomenes was distinguished 
15 


170 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SPARTA. 


for his efforts and heroism. (In Mitford’s Greece is a 
brilliant history of the Messenian wars.) 

A distinguished king of Sparta was Cleomenes, who 
assisted the party of Athenians that wished to expel 
Hippias, and afterwards took up the cause of a certain 
Isagaros, in whose behalf he caused seven hundred 
families to be banished from Athens. But for this, he 
and his protege suffered a violent reaction from the 
Athenians, in which he was worsted. He was king 
of Sparta when Aristagoras went into Greece to obtain 
assistance to the Ionian revolters, and was probably 
saved from being bribed into this imprudent measure 
by his little daughter Gorgo, who was present, and, on 
Aristagoras’s offering money, warned him that •“ the 
stranger would seduce him.” This shows how noble- 
ness of feeling and thought inspired the Spartan life. 
Cleomenes caused his colleague, Demaratus, to be 
deposed, who fled into Persia j and Herodotus mentions 
his advice and conversations with the great king, on 
the conduct of the war. Cleomenes finally destroyed 
himself, and in this, as well as in other deeds of his life, 
betrayed the disease of insanity. The Lacedaemonians 
intended to meet the Persians at Marathon, with the 
Athenians, but did not reach the field until the action 
was over. At the battle of Thermopylae, however, 
they, in their turn, had the greatest glory. Leonidas, 
their king, deliberately determined to make of himself 
and his three hundred Spartans a sacrifice in that pass. 
When he found, after three days’ fighting, together with 
other Greeks, that Xerxes had found a path over the 
mountains, and would come round to the rear of the 
Grecian army, he persuaded all the rest of the Greeks 
to retire, and save themselves for another day, and 
leave the Spartans to teach the Persians that death 
for freedom was to them preferable to being enslaved. 
This self-sacrifice of the three hundred did make an 
immense impression. They broke the spirit of the 
Persian army. 

At Plataea, the next spring, Pausanias commanded 


SKETCHES OF HISTOllY. — SPARTA. 


171 


all the Grecian army. Throughout the war, the Spar- 
tans seemed to lead as if they had prescriptive right, 
and the Athenians prudently yielded, without striving, 
since it was necessary to concentrate all the forces of 
Greece against the common enemy. Afterwards, they 
took their revenge. 

The Lacedaemonians, in fear that they would do 
this, made an effort to prevent the Athenians from 
rebuilding their walls, but in vain ; and they were so 
vexed with Themistocles for forestalling their plans, 
that it is thought they intrigued to get him banished. 
Their own king, Pausanias, afterwards being detected 
in traitorous conspiracy with the king of Persia, 
against the liberties of Greece, was obliged to take 
refuge in a temple of Minerva, where he was, indeed, 
not touched, but left to starve ! This was a great mor- 
tification to the Lacedaemonians. 

The final consequence of the jealousy of the Athe- 
nians and Spartans, as to which should have the 
supremacy in Greece, produced the Peloponnesian war, 
in which Phocis, Boeotia, Locris, and all Peloponnesus, 
(except Argos, which remained neuter,) declared for 
Lacedaemon ; and the Asiatic Greeks, the Islands, 
Plataea and Messenia, for Athens. At first, the Lace- 
daemonians prevailed by land, perpetually laying 
waste Attica ; but the Athenians prevailed at sea, rav- 
aging the coasts of Peloponnesus. Archidamus was 
king when the war began, but he soon died, and his 
son Agis succeeded him. When, at a later period of 
the war, Alcibiades was in banishment at Sparta, he 
induced the Lacedaemonians td make alliance with Tis- 
saphernes, the Persian satrap ; but the ephori w^re so 
dissatisfied with his arrangement of this alliance, that 
they drove him from Sparta, and he went to the court 
of Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap. 

The Lacedaemonians thus introduced into Asia, 
Cyrus the Younger, who courted the Spartan alliance, 
assisted their king Lysander, who had been chosen to 
make headway against the naval force of Athens, and 


172 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SPARTA. 


had raised a fleet, gone across the Archipelago, and 
established himself in Ephesus. He was replaced in 
a year by Callicratidas, who, losing his life in an action 
afterwards, Lysander was pttt back into his old com- 
mand ; and, getting money from Cyrus the Younger, 
he succeeded in gaining the battle of iEgos-potamos, 
from which place he sailed directly to Athens, which, 
after a siege of six months, he took, demolished its 
walls, and imposed on it the oligarchy of the Thirty 
Tyrants. 

Lysander was on terms of great friendship with 
King Agesilaus ; and hearing that Conon, the Athenian, 
was equipping, by the aid of the Persians, a great fleet 
in Asia Minor, he advised that Agesilaus should go 
thither and interfere with it. He did ; and subse- 
quently became so formidable to the Persian king, by 
freeing the Greek cities, and gaining other advantages 
in Asia Minor, that the plan of bribing the Grecian 
states to confederate against Lacedaemon, was begun. 
A coolness arose, after a while, between Agesilaus and 
Lysander, caused by rivalry ; and the latter returned 
to Sparta, and soon after was killed in a battle against 
the confederates. Pausanias, the other king of Sparta, 
like the Pausanias of the Persian war, being condemned 
for cowardice, fled to a temple of Minerva. There he 
died of chagrin. Agesilaus was soon recalled to Greece, 
by the ephori, to oppose the alarming confederacy 
against Sparta; and, with allies that he made, he 
gained the victory of Cheronaea. Xenophon describes 
this. The war still went on, and at last the Lacedae- 
monians found that they must have a treaty with 
Persia, unless they meant to give up their position of 
predominance in Greece. Antalcidas was charged with 
obtaining this, and it was many years before it was set- 
tled and subscribed by all the Grecian states. The 
Lacedaemonians yielded too much of Greece to the 
Persian king, in order to retain their own freedom 
unimpaired. Soon were seen the bad effects for Greece, 
pf tfle advantages they had reserved to themselves ? 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SPARTA. 


173 


in their wanton attacks upon Mantinea, and on the lib- 
erties of Thebes, and their conquest of Olynthus. 
But they raised against them two Thebans, who in 
the end punished them. Pelopidas and Epaminondas, 
who were exiled to Athens when the Spartans took 
possession of Thebes, in some years returned, and 
drove out the intruders from their native city, whence 
sprung up a war of Sparta with Athens, and the latter 
made alliance with the Thebans. Epaminondas was 
made general in this war, and gained the battle of 
Leuctra, with other advantages. Afterwards, at the 
solicitation of the Arcadians, (whom Agesilaus had 
ravaged in order to restore the spirits of the Spartans,) 
the Thebans proposed to themselves to conquer Pelo- 
ponnesus ; which, perhaps, they might have done, had 
not Epaminondas been killed at the battle of Man- 
tinea. Though the Thebans gained the victory, this 
was the end of the glory of Thebes, — all of which, 
indeed, seems to have been concentrated in the person 
of Epaminondas. Agesilaus still survived, and soon 
after went into Egypt to assist its king, Tachos, against 
the Persians. Tachos, however, would not take his 
advice, and was lost in consequence. He then gave 
counsel to his successor, Nectanabys. But Agesilaus 
died in Egypt, the same year in which Democritus, 
the laughing philosopher, died. 

Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, won a victory 
over the Arcadians, in which he killed ten thousand 
without losing one man. They named it in Sparta 
the “ tearless battle.” He died in Italy, whither he 
had gone to assist the Tarentines (who were originally 
a colony from Sparta) against the Lucanians. During 
the reign of Archidamus, the Lacedaemonians took 
part in the first sacred war, on the side of the Pho- 
cians. 

Agis II. lived in the time of Alexander the Great, 
and did not yield to the Macedonian power ; yet it was 
not until after Alexander’s death that Sparta, for the 
first time, built walls to assure its safety from the rob- 
15 * 


171 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — SPARTA. 


bers that were abroad. This country never fell under 
the supremacy of Macedonia. 

In the last part of the third century before Christ, 
Agis III. made an attempt to revive the discipline of 
Lycurgus, and divided the land into lots among the 
Laconians, giving 4500 lots to the Spartans. This 
produced a faction of the rich, of which his colleague, 
Leonidas, became the head, and Agis lost his life. 
But the son of Leonidas, Cleomenes, renewed Agis’s 
attempt, and also was valiant and strenuous in his 
efforts to oppose the Achaean league. Aratus at length 
called to his aid, against Cleomenes, Antigonus Doson, 
king of Macedonia, who attracted to himself the allies 
of Cleomenes, and then defeated him at the ( battle of 
Sellasia. 

Afterwards the iEtolian league was formed in Greece, 
against the Achaeans and Macedonians, of which the 
Spartans were a part ; but B. C. 219, the last of the 
Heracleidic kings yielded to the first of the tyrants, 
whose name, singularly enough, was Lycurgus. One of 
these tyrants, King Machanidas,laid the plan of getting 
possession of all Peloponnesus, but was defeated by 
Philopoemen, strategics of the Achaeans. Machanidas 
had annihilated the power of the ephori, and the consti- 
tution of Sparta seems to have been injured from the 
time of the accession of these tyrants, who had nothing 
to do with the blood of the ITeracleidae. Nabis was 
one of them, whose violence and cruelty so alarmed 
the Achasans, that they called the Romans to their help ; 
but the effect of the Roman aid was transient. Nabis was 
assassinated, at length, by one of his own lieutenants, 
who was in turn assassinated by some other Lacedaemo- 
nians for treading in the steps of his predecessor. Then 
Philopoemen went to Sparta, to negotiate a treaty, by 
which they should become a part of the league ; and 
this was effected on the condition that they might live 
under their own laws. For a time, their gratitude to 
Philopoemen was great ; but afterwards becoming 
inimical to him, he marched to Sparta, razed its walls, 
and abolished the constitution and laws of Lycurgus. 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — MACEDONIA. 


175 


N. B. For the history of Sparta, setting aside the 
superior and rare History of the Dorians, by Muller, 
see the entertaining, though not entirely reliable Plu- 
tarch, in the lives of Lycurgus, Lysander, Agesilaus, 
Agis, Cleomenes, and we might add, perhaps, of Ara- 
tus and Philopoemen, though these were Achseans. 
Their lives involve the history of the Achaean league. 
For the history of Rhodes, the noblest of the Dorian 
communities, see Arnold’s History of Rome, chapter 
35th. Also for the history of Syracuse, another Dorian 
colony of great repute, see Plutarch’s lives of Dion 
and Timoleon, and Arnold’s History of Rome, chapters 
21st and 35th. For a general view of the relation of 
the Dorian race to the history of human culture, see 
iEsthetic Papers, published in Boston, in 1849. For a 
very valuable history of the literature of Greece, more 
important, perhaps, than the political history, see K. 
O. Muller’s History of Grecian Literature, in the 
British Society’s publications for the Diffusion of 
Knowledge. This book was left imperfect at the 
death of -its author ; but it contains the best period of 
the Grecian life, and no book is more worthy of re- 
print in America. 


MACEDONIA. 

Macedonia was anciently one of the Pelasgian king- 
doms, and, as such, is beyond the reach of any history 
but the critical. In the ninth century, the Heracleid 
Caranus is mentioned as its king; and during the Per- 
sian war, a king of Macedonia, named Alexander, was 
sent as an ambassador to the Athenians by Mardonius. 
An account of this Alexander is given in Herodotus’s 
eighth book, (Urania,) where he is made the seventh 
in descent from Perdiccas, an Argive, who became a 
king of Macedonia B. C. 695. The next Macedonian 
king that belongs to universal history, after Alexander, 
is Philip II., father of Alexander the Great. In Mit- 


176 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — MACEDONIA. 


ford’s Greece, is the most brilliant history of Philip II. 
extant. Mitford is so fond of the arbitrary govern- 
ment of one. that he always gives as splendid a view* 
of the administration of an autocrat as the materials 
afforded by history allow ; and sometimes he goes 
beyond that mark. The truth probably is, that, in 
many crises of human affairs, a king is the least evil 
the case admits of. 

Philip, by the misfortunes of his family, was, at an 
early age, a hostage in Thebes, and had the inestimable 
advantage, in his youth, of intimacy with Pelopidas 
and Epaminondas, who were his guardians. He was 
not the legitimate heir of the throne of Macedonia, but 
took possession of it after his eldest brother’s death, to 
the prejudice of his nephew’s right, of which he was 
guardian. He began his career with wars against his 
northern neighbors, and is believed to have invented 
the phalanx, a company of infantry in the form of a 
square, — sixteen thousand men, in ten brigades, each 
of one hundred men in front, and sixteen deep, — the 
men all six feet high, armed with bucklers and spears, 
of such various lengths, that the points of the spears 
of the last rank name out as far as those of the front. 
This phalanx was irresistible in attack, and, when 
well flanked by cavalry, invincible. 

But Philip, besides being a warrior, was a great 
diplomatist, and made it his aim to gain predominance 
in Greece, in spite of Sparta and Athens. His course 
was one of consummate ability ; and he had to con- 
tend with none of the old virtue of Greece that had 
baffled Xerxes, except so much as survived in the elo- 
quence of Demosthenes, in whose imagination still 
lived the old freedom, but whose personal prowess fell 
far short. Philip hired the corrupt Athenian orators 
(who had learned from sophists to have no country and 
no honor) to plead his cause in their own Athens. 
Meanwhile he took advantage of the sacred war, in 
which the states of Greece engaged, respecting some 
land belonging to the temple of Delphi, to enlarge 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — MACEDONIA. 


177 


his own boundaries. He also married Olympia, the 
daughter of Neoptolemus, king of the Mollossi, said to 
be a descendant of Achilles ; and he became, B. C. 
356, father of Alexander the Great. He afterwards 
took possession of the city of Olynthus, in Thrace, a 
powerful republic, which had become alarmed at the 
progress of his power, and had formed a league with 
Athens, in order to limit it. 

An opportunity was also afforded to Philip of inter- 
vening in the affairs of Greece, by the Thebans, who 
asked his aid to help them reduce the Phocians, who 
had declared themselves independent of Thebes. 
These Phocians were, at length, betrayed to him by 
two traitors of their own number. 

It was then that Demosthenes began to warn the 
Athenians, and advise them to check the power of 
Philip ; but he could prevail little against the venal 
orators in the pay of Philip. The warrior Phocion 
(whose life Plutarch has written) was more effective, 
being able to check him in a war which arose on his 
attempt to get possession of Euboea, and in some other 
of his ambitious projects. At length, Demosthenes 
did succeed in detaching Thebes from the alliance with 
Philip, and induced it to unite with Athens against 
him, whence arose open war, and the battle of Cheronaea, 
in which Philip obtained the victory. Immediately 
afterwards, Philip made alliances with the Athenians, 
and some other Grecian states, for the purpose of mak- 
ing war on Persia ; but he was not able to execute this 
plan, being assassinated by one of the officers of his 
guard. 

If Philip’s history is studied in Mitford, Demosthe- 
nes’ history should be studied in Heeren’s Politics of 
Ancient Greece, which takes the side of Demosthenes, 
and defends the cause of republicanism. * 

Alexander the Great was only eighteen years old 
when he became king. He combined with his high 
position the highest gifts of genius, and the advantage 
of an education conducted by Aristotle. Plutarch has 


178 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — MACEDONIA. 


written his life. As soon as Alexander mounted his 
throne, he was attacked by his northern neighbors, 
whom he subdued. He then destroyed the city of 
Thebes, which so terrified the rest of Greece, that all 
the states hastened to make him their friend, by renew- 
ing the alliance arranged by Philip. Having assembled 
the deputies at Corinth, and told them his plan of the 
Persian invasion, he was elected, by acclamation, gen- 
eralissimo of the expedition. He started in the spring 
of the year 334 B. C., at the head of an army of thirty- 
four thousand men, and arrived at the River Granicus, 
in Phrygia, before he met with the smallest opposition. 
Here he met the Persian army, commanded by a 
Rhodian, who had not intended to engage in battle. 
This man wished to lay waste the country, in order to 
starve out Alexander ; but the satrap of Phrygia would 
not consent to that plan, and compelled a battle. The 
Persian army was four times as great as that of Alex- 
ander, and had a good position on the farther side of 
the Granicus ; but Alexander boldly passed the river, 
and put them to rout. He came near losing his own 
life in this battle, but was saved by the valor of his 
foster brother Clitus. He then reduced the maritime 
cities of Asia Minor. In Cilicia he had a terrible fit 
of sickness, in consequence of imprudently bathing in 
the River Cydnus, when covered with sweat ; and on 
that occasion occurred the famous incident of his taking 
medicine from the hand of Philip, his physican, just after 
he had received a letter from Parmenio, warning him 
that Philip had been corrupted by the king of Persia. 
When Alexander took the cup, he gave to Philip the 
letter to read, and, as soon as he saw the expression of 
face with which he read it, swallowed the medicine, 
which cured him. At Issus, in Cilicia, Alexander 
encountered the king of Persia, and an army of five 
hundred thousand men, and defeated it, taking prison- 
ers the whole family of Darius, whom he treated with 
the greatest generosity. He then took possession of 
the cities of Syria, and besieged Tyre, which occupied 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. —MACEDONIA. 


179 


him seven months. Having, soon after, received the 
homage of Jerusalem, he went into Egypt, which sub- 
mitted without resistance. After a visit to the shrine 
of Jupiter Ammon, in Libya, he returned to Egy-pt, 
and founded Alexandria, where he left a colony of 
Macedonians. It is said that Darius, partly out of 
gratitude to Alexander for his mercy to his family, 
offered him, at this time, all his dominions east of the 
Tigris ; but if he did so, Alexander rejected them ; for 
he crossed the Tigris in pursuit of Darius, who met 
his army of fifty thousand men with an army of six 
hundred thousand, and was vanquished. 

Immediately after the battle, Alexander made a tri- 
umphal entry into Babylon, and spent a month there 
in the greatest magnificence of feasting. Thence he 
went successively to Susa and Perse polis, the two great 
cities of Persia. At Persepolis, he committed the folly 
of letting his soldiers set it on fire ; but he did not 
allow it to be entirely consumed. Its magnificent re- 
mains are yet to be seen, and Sir Robert Kerr Porter’s 
Travels contain descriptions and engraved sketches of 
them. Alexander pursued Darius into Bactriana, where 
the latter was assassinated by two of his satraps. The 
conqueror, arriving at the spot where Darius was lying 
dead, showed humane respect to the remains, and sent 
them to be buried in the tomb of the Persian kings. 
Bessus, one of the murderers of Darius, assumed the 
title of king of Bactriana; but Alexander pursued him, 
and his treason to his master was requited on his own 
head ; for some of his own followers brought him to 
Alexander, with a cord round his neck ; and Alexander 
sent him to a brother of Darius, who put him to death 
in torture. The other murderer wrote letters of excuse 
and supplication to Alexander, who pardoned him. 
Alexander afterwards attacked and routed the Scythians 
about the Caspian Sea, and made an expedition to India, 
which ended by such an arrangement with King Porus 
as was equivalent to conquest. (See Plutarch.) After 
this, he made an expedition to Ecbatana, the capital of 


180 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. —MACEDONIA. 


Media, and against the Arabs. He then returned to 
Babylon, where he died of a fever, said to have been 
brought on by an excessive debauch. 

It is impossible, in such a sketch as this, to give an 
adequate idea of Alexander and his conquests. The uni- 
versal confusion, and the ages of war which immediately 
succeeded his death, make it impossible for us to know 
and appreciate, in detail, what he did of an organizing 
character ; far less what he planned to do. He founded 
a great many Alexandras, which he doubtless meant 
should be the centres of Grecian civilization ; and it is 
a certain fact that he did diffuse the Greek language 
far and wide, making it in a measure universal. The 
Alexandria in Egypt became the most renowned of all 
the cities he founded. It was a centre of communica- 
tion for the Oriental and Occidental philosophies, for 
many centuries, and exercised an immense influence 
upon the forms of thought which the Christian religion 
took. 

When Alexander was dying, he gave his ring to 
Perdiccas, and said, that he left his empire 11 to the 
most worthy,” predicting that his funeral obsequies 
would be celebrated by an embattled world. This 
proved true prophecy. No one but Alexander could 
hope to give unity and consistency to this vast domin- 
ion. Perhaps even he would have failed. His gen- 
erals immediately assembled to arrange the government. 
They made a natural son of Philip king, because he 
was an imbecile, (made so, it is said, by Olympia, 
Alexander’s mother, who poisoned him in his child- 
hood, that he might not interfere with the prospects of 
her son.) This Aridaeus was put under the guardian- 
ship of Perdiccas, who was to bring up also the son of 
Roxana, to share the Macedonian throne. With these 
phantoms on the throne, the generals proceeded to 
divide among themselves the real power. 

Immediately the great empire divided into its com- 
ponent parts. Upper Asia reverted to those from whom 
Alexander had conquered it : hence we find the king- 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — MACEDONIA. 


181 


doms of Pontus, Pergamus, Cappadocia, Cimmerian 
Bosphorus, Albania, Media Atropatia, Colchis, Iberia, 
Rhodes, &c. The rest of the empire fell under differ- 
ent generals, viz., 

Egypt to Ptolemy Lagus, also called Soter. 

Syria to Laomedon of Mitylene ; 

Cilicia to Philotas; 

Media to Python ; 

Cappadocia and Paphlagonia to Eumenes ; 

Caria to Cassander ; 

Lydia to Meleager ; 

Thrace to Lysimachus ; 

Macedonia, including Greece, to Antipater. 

B. C. 321, we find all these governments reduced to 
four, viz., 

Macedonia, under Cassander and Antipater ; 

Thrace, (with the Chersonesus,) under Lysimachus ; 

Egypt, (with Arabia, Palestine, and Libya,) under 
Ptolemy ; 

Syria, under Seleucus. 

B. C. 315, the division becomes, 

Macedonia, under Cassander ; 

Caria, under another Cassander ; 

Egypt, under Ptolemy Lagus ; 

Upper Asia, under Seleucus ; 

Syria, under Antigonus. 

B. C. 311, the triumphal entrance of Seleucus into 
Babylon, after the conquest of Media and Susiana, 
begins the era of the Seleucidas. In the same year, 
Cassander put to death Roxana and her son, and the 
next year, the last scion of the great conqueror was 
destroyed in the person of his natural son Hercules. 

B. C. 307, we find five divisions: — 

Asia Minor and Syria, under Antigonus ; 

Macedonia, under Cassander ; 

Egypt, &c., under Ptolemy Lagus ; 

Thrace, &c., under Lysimachus ; 

Upper Asia, under Seleucus. 

In 301, just after the battle of Ipsus, gained by Ly- 

16 


182 


SKETCHES OE HISTORY. — MACEDONIA. 


simachus and Seleucus over Antigonus and Demetrius 
Poliorcetes, there was another division into four king- 
doms, by the union of Asia Minor and Syria with 
Upper Asia, which now all took the name of Syria, 
under the Seleucidae. Lysimachus’s kingdom expired 
with himself, and was absorbed into Macedonia. 

It is plain that the above revolutions must have 
involved immense wars. The detail is of little inter- 
est, and may be found in Plutarch’s lives of Demos- 
thenes, Phocion, Alexander, Eumenes, Demetrius, 
Poliorcetes, &c. Universal history now concentrates 
itself upon the Romans, who gradually subject the 
whole great empire of Alexander, with their Macedo- 
nian, Achaean, Syrian, Mithridatic, and Parthian wars. 
The Achaean league in Greece, and the Maccabaean 
dynasty of Judaea, give each a brilliant page, it is true ; 
but over all Rome triumphed, by the right of the 
strongest. The possession of these kingdoms drugged 
her, however, with mortal disease. The riches of 
Asia, which had tarnished and corrupted the beautiful 
intellectual life of Greece, weakened also the giant 
strength of Rome. The Eastern Empire had, indeed, 
a name to live, for nearly a housand years after the 
Western Empire was dismembered by the strong, 
fresh nations of Northern Europe ; but it was a life in 
death, and as the Mahometan powers gradually took 
possession of the several parts of it, it is a question if 
it was not an elevation of their condition, at least for 
the season. The present condition, however, of the 
Asiatic nations, especially the old garden of the world, 
is a terrible .comment upon the Turkish and all other 
governments that have held empire over them. 

N. B. The 35th chapter of Dr. Arnold’s Rome is a 
very good survey of the state of things under Alex- 
ander’s immediate successors. Several of the lives of 
Plutarch, also, may be consulted, viz., Alexander, 
Pyrrhus, Eumenes, Flaminius, Demetrius, Paulus 
iEmilius. Of the modern histories of Greece, there are 
Mitford’s, Gillies’s, Thirlwali’s, and, now in publica- 
tion, Grote’s, besides Keightley’s School History. 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


183 


ROME. 

Rome, according to Dr. Arnold, was founded B. C. 
748, about the time when the old empire of Babylon 
broke into the three kingdoms of Assyria, Media, and 
Babylon. For two hundred and fifty years it was 
governed by kings — Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Till- 
ius Hostilius, Ancus Martius, Tarquin the Elder, Ser- 
vius Tullius, and Tarquin the Proud. Livy, who 
lived five centuries after the last of them, has given a 
brilliant detail of their reigns, in his first book, and 
Plutarch, who lived two centuries later than Livy, 
tells the lives of Romulus and Numa with great 
minuteness. 

But it is now believed, that the history of these 
kings is quite as much involved in mythology and 
poetry as that of Homer’s heroes. Niebuhr’s Criticisms 
on Roman History, Michelet’s 'Roman Republic, and 
Arnold’s History of Rome, show how the truth, and 
what truth, may be extracted from the beautiful tra- 
dition. Romulus and Tullus Hostilius express the 
warlike Latin element of Rome. Both these kings 
were in a manner apotheosized. One disappeared in a 
thunder storm, the other was killed by lightning. 
Numa Pompilius and Ancus Martius express the moral 
and peaceful Sabines, who gave that element of probity 
to the Roman character which occasionally shows 
itself. The Etruscan Tarquins express the stately, 
pompous, formal element of Rome ; while Servius 
Tullius, who intervenes between Priscus and Superbus, 
was the people’s king, with whose name was asso- 
ciated every institution and law which the Romans 
valued most while they continued a republic. 

The kings were at first elected ; but Tarquin the 
Proud came upon the throne by the murder of Servius 
Tullius, and he lost it by his son Sextus’s insult to 
the virtuous Lucretia, who stabbed herself, and gave 
the bloody dagger to her father and husband to avenge 


184 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


her wrongs. A war broke out in consequence, and 
the Tarquins were expelled from Rome ; and when 
they induced Porsenna, an Etrurian Lucumo, to in- 
vade Rome in their behalf, he was turned back, not 
so much by the heroism of Horatius Codes, or the 
martyr courage of Mutius Scaevola, as by the probity 
of the Romans, in restoring Cloelia and the other hos- 
tages who had escaped from the Etruscan camp, and 
swum the Tiber. Some time after, when the thirty 
cities of Latium united to restore the Tarquins, the 
Romans utterly defeated them all at Lake Regillus. 
(Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome give a ballad on 
this battle, which boys might easily learn, and fix this 
story forever in their memory.) 

The dictatorship was an occasional office, conferring, 
while it lasted, despotic military power. It was reserved 
for times of great danger, and limited to specified seasons. 
The regular republican government, established on the 
abolition of monarchy,* gave the chief power to the 
senate, and involved two consuls, elected for a year. 
Brutus and Collatinus were the first consuls. Brutus 
is known in history for an act of extraordinary impar- 
tiality. He discovered his own sons in a conspiracy 
to restore the Tarquin dynasty to power, and had them 
executed for the treason, according to law. He knew 
he should not have forgiven another man’s children, 
and he thought he had no right, while he was public 
magistrate, to forgive his own. This stoical impar- 
tiality has ever since been called the Roman virtue. 
It was imitated afterwards by Manlius Torquatus. 

At first, the magistrates of Rome were elected out 
of the patrician families exclusively, Brutus and Col- 
latinus were both Tarquinii. Many other patricians 
were friends to the equal rights of the various races ; 
for the distinction of patrician and plebeian was a dis- 
tinction of races, the Latin and Sabine families being 
generally plebeian. Valerius Publicola was one of the 
earlier consuls, and named Publicola because he mag- 
nanimously demolished his own house, on the people’s 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROHE. 


185 


intimating that the site he had built it on (one of the 
hills) looked aristocratic. Appius Claudius, on the 
other hand, was of Sabine extraction, and the family 
were terrible aristocrats. 

A constant struggle went on at Rome between the 
patricians and plebeians ; but it seldom or never broke 
out into war. The plebeians gained one point of 
political equality after another, by slow degrees ; first, 
the tribuneship of the plebeians was established, and 
by and by a military tribuneship, to which the ple- 
beians, as well as patricians, were eligible, though the 
first military tribunes were all patricians. There was 
a singular moderation in the party spirit of Rome. 
When the plebeians had gained their point of law, 
they were always satisfied, and seemed to prefer that the 
actual transfer of power should be very gradually made. 
In the course of time, every office became open to 
both orders. Every one of these crises in the history 
of the constitution is marked in the Chronological 
Chart, for they are important events of Roman history. 

During the time of the kings, Rome had conquered 
a large domain ; but at the expulsion of the Tarquins, 
it lost the twelve states of Etruria and the thirty cities 
of Latium. In the wars that ensued, a great social 
evil was developed, arising from the fact that the 
patrician property was on a tenure and guarded by 
laws which made war a gain to them and a loss to the 
plebeians. In order to remedy this evil, noble-minded 
patricians, from time to time, proposed a division of 
the conquered lands (which were the property of the 
state) to plebeians, to be held on a more just principle. 
This was called an agrarian law. The first patrician 
who proposed this, Spurius Cassius, was thrown from 
the Tarpeian rock, through the intrigues of his brother 
patricians. 

The laws of property in Rome were briefly these: 
The patricians owned the land, and let it to the plebe- 
ians ; but the plebeians owned the crops. The patri- 
cians also had the monopoly of foreign commerce. 

16 * 


186 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — HOME. 


Slavery for debt was allowed, and even capital punish- 
ment, after a certain time of waiting ; while the wars 
put the plebeians in debt inevitably, and in spite of 
their utmost prudence, — for they withdrew men from 
agriculture, and exposed the crops to destruction by the 
enemy. But the people had one resource within their 
own power. When called upon to enlist, they could 
refuse, until certain privileges were allowed them ; and 
they would often withdraw upon Mount Janiculum, 
till the patricians came to terms. They also elected 
the consuls, and thus had power over those ambitious 
of office. The history of Coriolanus, given in Plu- 
tarch, and reproduced in a drama by Shakspeare, gives 
a good idea of the wrongs and rights of the plebeians ; 
though, according to Niebuhr, Coriolanus was almost 
wholly a creation of the muse. 

In the middle of the fifth century before Christ, the 
consulate was suspended for two years ; and the decem- 
virate, or rule of ten men, was established, for the pur- 
pose of making and putting into execution the cele- 
brated twelve tables of Roman law. But the decem- 
virate was violently and suddenly abolished, because 
one of them, Appius Claudius, abused his power, in 
order to get into his possession a beautiful girl named 
Virginia. Her father came up from the Roman camp, 
on hearing that his daughter was claimed as a slave 
by Appius Claudius ; and, finding no other way of 
saving her honor, he killed her ; and, with the bloody 
sword, raised a revolt in Rome, which issued in the 
restoration of consuls, and abolition of the decemvi- 
rate. This was just about the time of the closing of 
the Persian war by the Greek Cimon. 

B. C. 390, the Gauls invaded Italy, and sacked 
Rome so completely, that, after they retired, the people 
did not even try to rebuild it, but went to live at Veii, 
an Etrurian city. Every thing destructible in Rome 
was destroyed by this Gaulic invasion : and this is the 
reason it is so very difficult to learn the true history 
of Rome previous to this era. 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


187 


It was through the influence and genius of Camillus, 
who had been banished from Rome before the Gauls 
came, that the Romans were induced to return. Camii- 
lus’s life (which Plutarch has written) is indeed much 
wrapped up in mythology ; but there is no doubt of 
this fact, and that he repulsed the Gauls in a second 
invasion, which they made afterwards. During the 
first half of the fourth century B. C., the Gauls made 
five invasions, illustrated by the heroism of Valerius 
Corvus, Manlius Torquatus, and others ; but they were 
finally checked. 

Immediately after the final defeat of the Gauls began 
the Roman wars with the Samnites. Of these Sam- 
nite wars, we have only the Roman account ; but even 
through the prejudices of that, it may be seen that the 
Samnites were a noble people, and that their hostility 
to Rome proceeded from a just jealousy of her en- 
croachments upon the independence of the other 
nations of Italy. There was more or less of union 
among all the nations of Italy against the Romans, 
during these Samnite wars ; but the Romans had one 
advantage which in the end overbalanced every thing 
else. They had unity of action and centralization of 
power, while their enemies were divided among them- 
selves, jealous of each other, and unable to act with 
sufficient concert. The Romans showed some of their 
worst traits of character during these wars, especially 
in their treatment of the Samnite commander, in the 
affair of the Caudine Forks. 

Every body ought to read the history of Rome in 
Dr. Arnold’s work. He has written it not only with 
thorough critical research, but with that fine moral 
sense which cannot be dazzled by the successes of 
mere power. He does fullest justice to the Roman 
virtue, wherever he finds it ; he sees and sets forth the 
worth of its organizing genius, and conservative, cen- 
tralizing policy ; but he feels, with a human heart, 
for the life of nations that were trodden down by its 
unscrupulous foot, and whose finer essence went out 


188 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


with pangs of human agony, to reappear in a Roman 
form, which was only made tolerable by what it 
absorbed of Latin genius, Sabine probity, and Etruscan 
dignity. 

There were four Samnite wars in seventy-one years, 
and a Latin war between the first and second of these, in 
which the Samnites' took the Roman side, and which 
resulted in the dissolution of the Latin confederacy, 
arid final union of Latium and Rome; although there 
were different conditions made with its several cities. 
The union was perhaps beneficial, on the whole, to 
both parties. Soon after, there was an alliance between 
Rome and Alexander of Epirus, uncle to Alexander 
the Great, (the latter of whom was now prosecuting 
his great conquests in Asia.) The second Samnite 
war grew out of the war of the Romans with some 
of the cities of Magna Graecia, and in the course of it, 
(for it lasted twenty years,) Etruria and Umbria submit- 
ted. But they, together with the Gauls, united with 
the Samnites in a third war against the Romans, who 
made a more powerful confederacy on their side by 
means of the Latin and some Greek cities. The fourth 
Samnite war arose in a dispute with Tarentum, and 
was made memorable by the invitation to Pyrrhus, 
king of Epirus, to intervene in it. Its great battles 
were those of Heraclea, Ascnlum, and Beneventum : 
in the former two Pyrrhus was conqueror ; but after the 
last, in which he was defeated, he left Italy, and the 
Romans conquered Samnium ; and from that time 
Rome may be considered as the mistress of Italy, to 
the Po. 

But let it not be imagined that the privileges of 
Roman citizenship were commensurate with the Roman 
dominion. Under the form of allies, more or less 
dependent, and of absolutely conquered nations, the 
Italian states yet preserved a name, — vox , et proeterea 
nihil , (voice, and nothing else.) 

In the last Samnite war, relations had begun with 
other nations. Pyrrhus was of Grecian genius. A 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


183 


descendant of Achilles, he was fired with the ambition 
of being another Alexander the Great, and had schemes 
of conquering the world. He was indeed broken 
before the persevering genius of Rome ; but he proba- 
bly first electrified the Romans themselves with the 
idea of overcoming Carthaginian power, of getting 
possession of Sicily, and even of being felt in Greece. 
This was not manifested by any sudden explosion. 
The fire passed into them without any perceptible 
shock, and remained hidden long ; but it pervaded 
their whole material life. 

The Punic wars commenced within ten years after 
the Samnite wars closed. The first of these gave the 
Romans predominance in Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. 
They conquered the Carthaginians even on the sea, and 
carried the war into Africa. In the interval between 
the first and second Punic wars, they made conquests 
in Cisalpine Gaul, Istria, and Illyria. In the second 
Punic war, even while Hannibal was ravaging Italy, 
they made the AGtolians the instruments of extending 
their influence . in Greece ; and, under the specious pre- 
tence of giving it liberty, made their first war on Mace- 
don, which resulted in Macedon’s begging their alli- 
ance ; they conquered Sicily and Spain: and finally, 
after all Hannibal’s splendid victories in Italy, they 
conquered him under the walls of Carthage, at Zama, 
making a peace by which they preserved Spain and all 
the islands, and made the Carthaginians pay ten thou- 
sand talents, and give up all their fleet except ten tri- 
remes. 

Between the second and third Punic wars, they vin- 
dicated their rule by arms, in Spain and Cisalpine 
Gaul ; destroyed, by their second Macedonian war, the 
Macedonian predominance in Greece, and made the 
pretence of restoring its liberty their pretext for aiding 
its self-destroying civil wars. When, at last, the JEto- 
lians began to open their eyes, and called Antiochus 
the Great, of Syria, to check them, the Romans con- 
quered him at Thermopylae, destroyed his fleet, and 


190 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


compelled the iEtolians to acknowledge their suprem- 
acy. They even carried the war into Asia, and 
defeated Antiochus at Magnesia ; and while pretending 
to befriend the independence of the several Asiatic 
nations, began to look with jealous eyes upon that last 
effort for liberty in Greece, made by the Achaean league. 
By the battle of Pydna, gained by Paulus iEmilius, in 
the third Macedonian war, both Epirus and Macedon 
ceased to exist as nations. They conquered Illyria 
and Dalmatia immediately afterwards, and Liguria, on 
the other side of Italy, making their first inroads into 
Transalpine Gaul. 

The third Punic war and the fourth Macedonian war 
were simultaneous, and Africa and Greece became 
Roman provinces at the same time; the former, by 
Scipkfs destruction of Carthage ; the latter, by Mum- 
mius’s taking of Corinth, which finally broke down the 
Achaean league, the last effort of Greece. It was an 
unhappy chance* that it was not Corinth which was 
besieged by the cultivated Scipio, instead of the brutal 
Mummius, who was better fitted to be the destroyer 
of the mean and mercenary Carthage. Scipio would 
probably have spared the beautiful works of Grecian 
art, and would not have taken the precious paintings 
to make, with their canvas, tents for his soldiers, as 
Mummius did, after taking Corinth! 

The last Macedonian and Punic wars were followed 
by wars in Spain, whose principal feature was the 
siege of Numantia by Scipio, one of the terrible sieges 
that deform the history of humanity. Every where, 
at last, the Romans conquered. The wars of the 
slaves of Sicily fall inlo this period, and show, in their 
occasion and by their incidents, how little men had 
advanced in real civilization, which is the development 
of a general commonwealth. The slaves could not 
but rise : they could not but be conquered. 

The conquests made by Rome, within and without 
Italy, produced great constitutional commotions. The 
conquered land belonged to the government, who only 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


19V 


hired it out to occupants, and could at any time resume 
it. In the course of time, small owners, or state ten- 
ants, had been obliged to sell the right of occupation 
to such as had the most money ; and thus the land, in 
consequence of the perpetual wars, which came so 
hard on the small owners, had gone into the hands of 
the few rich persons, who, notwithstanding laws to the 
contrary, had their estates cultivated by slaves, of 
which the wars brought a profusion into Rome, it being 
the barbarous custom to sell captives taken in war as 
slaves — often, to sell the inhabitants of whole dis- 
tricts. 

Niebuhr thinks that the observance of the Licinian 
law of Rome, which forbade any individual to own 
more than five hundred jugera of land, would have 
prevented the enormous evils that grew up in Rome 
out of this land question. In his pages, the student 
who is interested in this very important subject, should 
study out the matter. In such a sketch as this, it can 
only be referred to by way of introducing another 
order of events, which took place in the last half of 
the second century B. C. 

The brothers Gracchi now came upon the stage of 
action. Their father, Sempronius Gracchus, was a 
soldier, who had done the state some service. He had 
conquered Sardinia, B. C. 177. He had also concluded 
a humane peace with the Celtiberians, a noble people 
of Spain. He had married the daughter of Scipio, 
Cornelia, who is known as the devoted mother that 
rebuked another Roman lady — who came to show her a 
casket of jewels, and asked Cornelia to do the like — 
by sending for her boys, and saying, “ These are my 
jewels.” 

Tiberius Gracchus proposed an agrarian law, at the 
unhappy crisis of social affairs in Rome which was 
brought about by the abuses respecting the possession 
of landed property. He endeavored to limit the quan- 
tity of land which should be in possession of one 
family. It is supposed, also, that he intended to bring 


192 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


about, if possible, a grant of the full rights of citizen- 
ship to the Italian allies. 

Some patricians favored his plans — even his father- 
in-law, Appius Claudius, (though that family was gen- 
erally on the unjust, aristocratic side,) and the great 
jurist, Mutius Scsevola. But the oligarchs generally 
were furiously opposed — even Scipio Nasica, grandson 
to that Publius Scipio whom the Roman senate had 
named the “ Best of the Romans.’’ 

Tiberius Gracchus was one of the tribunes of the 
people — for this office was sometimes held by patricians. 
It was found that his law would be carried, unless 
his colleague should be induced to put in his veto. 
Gracchus exerted himself to the utmost to make Oc- 
tavius enter into his noble plan, and proposed the 
greatest sacrifices of property ; but as Octavius deter- 
mined to oppose him, Gracchus turned his influence 
against him, by which Octavius was deprived of his 
office. The agrarian law was then carried, and the 
triumvirate, T. Gracchus, C. Gracchus, and Appius 
Claudius were appointed to carry it into execution. 
Tiberius Gracchus also carried the point that the treas- 
ures of the king of Pergamus, which had been left to 
the Roman people, should be divided among the 
persons to whom was assigned that part of the public 
land which would be distributed after the superfluous 
acres were taken from the great landed proprietors. 

So great was the hatred of the rich aristocrats against 
Tiberius Gracchus for what he had done, that he felt 
it necessary to get the tribuneship the next year, for 
the safety of his person. (A tribune was inviolable.) 
But this was against the common custom, and his 
enemies took advantage of the irregularity to raise a 
faction against him. The country people were en- 
gaged in their agricultural labors, at the particular 
season, and could not be in Rome to protect him. A 
riot arose at the election, and Tiberius Gracchus was 
killed. In Plutarch’s life of him may be seen what 
followed. The triumvirate, however, was continued, 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


193 


though unworthily filled, and Scipio Nasica, who 
had said that he approved of Tiberius Gracchus’s 
death, was found dead in his bed, and was believed to 
have been murdered. 

Caius Gracchus was even a greater man than his 
brother. He continued in public service many years, 
and had the ability to gain many great points ; but the 
fury of the aristocrats at last had its way, and Caius 
also was murdered. In the Reports of Niebuhr’s Lec- 
tures at Bonn, edited by Leonhard Schmitz, the history 
of these Gracchi is given by the sympathizing Niebuhr, 
in a mariner worthy of the subject. Their virtues won 
his heart, and in judging them, he forgets his timid con- 
servatism. See Lectures XXVI. to XXIX. inclusive. 
In the Jugurthan wars, described by Sallust, the 
famous Romans, Sylla and Marius, come into notice ; 
and that enmity arose between them which had such 
serious consequences for their country. It was one of 
the inevitable consequences of the continual wars of 
conquest that the Romans waged, that the military 
leaders should become the predominant powers, and 
the civil powers fall into abeyance. Marius became 
popular and powerful through his successful resistance 
to the northern nations, at one time the Teutones, at 
another time the Cimbri, who both threatened Rome 
with enormous invasions. Both Marius and Sylla 
served also in the social war, which was a last great 
effort made by the Italian nations to get their rights of 
citizenship, and which would, perhaps, have succeeded, 
but that Julius Caesar, by a law which granted them to 
fifty Latin cities, brought these over to the Roman side 
to act against the others. Three hundred thousand men 
fell in this war : by the peace the franchise was very 
much extended. But the death-sickness of Rome had 
begun. The Roman franchise was no longer a charter 
of liberty and manliness. 

There was about twenty years’ difference between 
the ages of Marius and Sylla; but they belonged to 
different ages. Sylla was the more cultivated and 
17 


194 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY — HOME. 


accomplished man, and had eclipsed Marius in the 
Jugurthan and in the Italian war. Jealousy and hatred 
rose up between them. Marius represented the ple- 
beian, and Sylla the patrician side. The occasion of 
their open rupture was their rivalry for the command 
of the Mithridatic war in Asia, which was first given 
to Sylla, and then taken away and given to Marius, 
by a plebisdtum , or decree of the people. Sylla had 
with him an army with which he was closing up the 
social war, and, in his exasperation at this injustice, as 
he deemed it, he marched to Rome, from which Ma- 
rius fled. At this time Sylla did nothing very violent. 
Having arranged affairs at Rome to his mind, he went 
to Greece : while he was gone, the party of Marius ob- 
tained the upper hand, and recalled their leader. Ma- 
rius became consul the seventh time ; and though his 
consulship only lasted seventeen days, he committed 
frightful cruelties, in revenge for his temporary banish- 
ment. He did not proscribe, but he gave orders for 
a terrible butchery. His death brought this to a close ; 
but his party reigned in Rome for three years more. 
Meanwhile Sylla went to Greece, against the generals 
of Mithridates, who held it. Sylla took the city of 
Athens from them by storm, and drove the Pontic 
commander back to Asia. He then proceeded into 
Asia himself, and so treated Asia Minor that he utterly 
impoverished’ its provinces, rich as they were. Niebuhr 
says Caria, Lydia, and Ionia make an earthly paradise, 
if tolerably governed ; but for many years they did 
not recover from Sylla’s terrible exactions. After this, 
Sylla returned to Rome. But the Roman government 
was too weak to oppose itself to his ambition. Marius 
the younger was consul. Several important military 
leaders took Sylla’s side — Metellus Pius, Cneus Pom- 
pey, and Lucullus. The civil war now raged. Its 
details may be read in Plutarch, or Niebuhr’s Lectures. 
The important battle was fought at the Colli ne Gate. 
Sylla gained it. Marius the younger fled, but perished 
in his flight. Sylla entered the city, and made a 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY — ROME. 


195 


terrible massacre and proscription. He then sent out 
from twenty-five to fifty legions, as military colonies, 
into the lands of those conquered Italians who had 
taken part with Marius. Florence and Fiesole were 
among the places of these military colonies. Where he 
did not send colonies, he gave the land that was con- 
quered to his favorites. He also made political changes, 
too numerous to mention here. Niebuhr tells them in 
his 36th lecture. He considers all his political action 
foolish, but says he managed the civil legislation better : 
still, he says the condition of Italy was frightful. Sylla 
was made perpetual dictator, and did these things as dic- 
tator. But in two years he resigned his dictatorship, to 
the surprise of all ; though, in fact having crushed all 
opposing power, he was safe enough in doing so. He 
returned to Puteoli, and died of a disgusting disease, the 
moment being hastened by a violent fit of rage. The 
magnificence of his funeral shows how completely he 
had annihilated, by his exhaustive cruelty, all his 
enemies. The completeness of his power is still more 
strikingly attested by the fact, that, after his death, 
Lepidus in vain endeavored to have his acts rescinded. 
Rome had fallen to the point that it could not rise 
against his terrible rule, even after he was dead. 

The rest of the history of Rome is hardly any 
thing else than the struggle of its several military 
leaders for supremacy. The further wars and conquests 
were made subservient to the ambitious designs of 
these leaders. Plutarch’s lives of Sertorius and Lucul- 
lus will show the next series of events. His life of 
Cicero will give the action of that great man, who 
modified, in some degree, the mere military rule which 
was fast predominating in the state. The life of 
Cicero involves the account of the conspiracies of 
Catiline, of which also Sallust wrote the history, and 
which exhibit the terrible vices of Roman society. 
Then comes on the struggle for power between Pom- 
pey, Caesar, and Crassus. Plutarch’s lives of these 
three, of Cato the younger, of Brutus and Cassius, and 


196 


SKETCHES OE HISTORY. — ROME. 


of Mark Antony, are very brilliant, and will give the 
popular history ; and our own Shakspeare’s reproduc- 
tion, as it were, of the same, in Julius Caesar, and An- 
tony and Cleopatra, throws a great deal of light on the 
spirit of the time. But the notes of Niebuhr’s lectures 
at Bonn, above mentioned, published under the title 
of the History of Rome from the First Punic War 
to the Death of Constantine, compared with Michelet’s 
Roman Republic, ought to be read as a review by 
all teachers and real students. All that can be said 
here is, that Sertorius, the friend of Marius, but a 
better man, carried on war in Spain eighteen years, and 
might have made himself an independent power there ; 
and it is believed he was about to do so, in concert 
with Mithridates, when he was betrayed by Perpenna. 
During this time, the war of the gladiators broke out 
in Italy, under Spartacus, which was terrible for three 
years, but was crushed. Lucullus, also, in Asia, con- 
quered Mithridates, and made the rich provinces of 
Asia Minor into a Roman domain. The process was, 
however, checked for a season by his being recalled, 
through the machinations of his political enemies ; and 
Pompey had the glory, such as it was, of finally com- 
pleting this conquest. He also exterminated the 
pirates that had, more or less, for ages, but lately more 
than ever, infested the Mediterranean Sea. It was at 
this season, when Rome was extending its empire so 
far, that Catiline’s conspiracy against the constitution, 
but for the action of Cicero, would have given her a 
fatal blow at home. Cicero is the favorite of Niebuhr. 
One ought to read, also, in the first volume of John 
Muller’s Universal History, the brilliant story of Julius 
Caesar, “ that man who, within the short space of four- 
teen years, subdued Gaul, thickly inhabited by warlike 
nations ; twice conquered Spain ; entered Germany 
and Britain ; marched through Italy at the head of a 
victorious army ; destroyed the power of Pompey the 
Great ; reduced Egypt to obedience ; saw and de- 
feated Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates j overpowered, 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — ROME. 


197 


in Africa, the great name of Cato and the arms of 
Juba ; fought fifty battles, in which one million one 
hundred and ninety-two thousand men fell ; was the 
greatest orator in the world next to Cicero ; set a pat- 
tern to all historians, which has never been excelled ; 
wrote learnedly on the sciences of grammar and au- 
gury ; and, falling, by a premature death, left memo- 
rials of his great plans for the extension of the empire 
and the legislation of the world.” 

After the Mithridatic Avar, Pompey, having found 
he had so many enemies, and also so powerful a rival 
as Caesar for popular favor, concluded to make common 
cause with the latter, and take advantage of his talents. 
Caesar was not loath ; for he believed that if, by Pom- 
pey’s influence, he could get the consulate, he could 
then rise above him. Crassus’s riches seem to have 
been his merit with both Pompey and Caesar, and 
hence arose the first triumvirate. When this union 
had been made, Caesar Avent to Gaul ; and his splendid 
exploits there, during ten years, increased his popu- 
larity at Rome prodigiously. Still Pompey and Caesar 
acted together in exiling Cicero; and in removing 
Cato, under the pretext of giving him the office of 
conquering Cyprus. They subsequently recalled 
Cicero, but under conditions which deprived him of 
the poAver he had formerly exercised. Pompey, mean- 
while, grew unpopular at Rome, by his unbending 
aristocracy ; nevertheless, the senate, Avhose cause he 
favored, had Spain decreed to him ; and he imagined 
himself powerful enough to attempt to check the rising 
poAver of Caesar. The result was the civil war be- 
tween Pompey and Caesar. This Avas begun by Cae- 
sar’s going to Rome Avith his Gallic army, from Avhich 
Pompey and the senate fled. 

Caesar did not do like Marius or Sylla. He made 
no proscription or massacre. He even offered peace to 
Pompey and his party. But they made no reply, and 
fled from Italy. 

He then Avent again to Spain, which he judged was 

17 # 


198 


SKETCHES OF HISTORY. — HOME. 


Pompey’s great resource, and conquered it, notwith- 
standing Pompey’s interests there were in the hands 
of great generals. On his way, he conquered Mas- 
silia, but, far from destroying it, left it to be the 
capital of Roman Gaul. On his return from Spain, he 
followed Pompey into Greece. Pompey had Greece, 
Africa, Asia, and the Roman senate, with the appear- 
ance of being on the legitimate side. Caesar had an 
army which was a unit, and in which he was the 
beloved despot, — and his genius! They met in the 
plains of Pharsalia, and Caesar gained the victory. 
Caesar knew how to use victory. When, with the rest 
of the baggage of Pompey, his correspondence was 
brought to Caesar, he burnt it unread. The next day, 
Pompey’s army surrendered. Cato alone held out, and 
tied to Africa, to see if he could not there raise a new 
army, in defence of the old constitution and laws, 
which he did not seem to realize were virtually long 
ago dead. Pompey retired before the conqueror, but 
was killed in Egypt, by Ptolemy’s order, who thus 
avoided the difficulty that he apprehended he should 
otherwise have with the victorious Caesar. 

Caesar is said to have wept over the head of Pompey ; 
and some suppose it was because he was deprived of 
the opportunity of showing magnanimous mercy to his 
conquered foe. He remained in Egypt, and gave to 
Cleopatra that kingdom, and had by her two sons. He 
then went into Asia, and conquered the son of Mifhri- 
dates. Meanwhile, Cato, and the sons of Pompey, 
with some others, gathered fprces against Caesar, but 
they were defeated by him at Thapsos. 

On this, Cato killed himself ; and his example was 
followed, though not in quite so sublime a manner, by 
Juba, Petreius, and Scipio. The sons of Pompey, 
however, ventured another effort ; they went to Spain, 
but there were vanquished by Caesar in the battle of 
Munda. 

In fine, Caesar conquered every where. Crassus had 
perished in a war against the Parthians. Caesar made 


SKETCHES OE HISTORY. — ROME. 


190 


this a pretext for a war against that people, which 
stretched the Roman dominion farther, in that quarter 
of the world, than it had previously gone. After doing 
this, he returned to Rome, reformed the calendar, and 
formed a plan for a code of laws. 

But some sparks of the old Roman virtue still 
remained. The Grecian philosophy, which passed 
into Rome in spite of Cato the Censor, — who opposed 
its introduction in vain during his life, believing it an 
instrument for destroying the Roman nationality, — 
proved its vestal guardian. What was mere theory 
with the ideal Greeks, became practical principle and 
character in Rome. B. Constant, in the second volume 
of his posthumous work on the Roman polytheism, 
shows the process of this transformation. Stoicism, 
combined with some Platonic ideas, was the nurture of 
the minds of Cato the younger and of Marcus Brutus. 
In the latter alone, after Cato’s death, glowed the old 
fire. 

There were others, however, who were restive under 
the supremacy of Caesar, for less noble reasons than the 
ideal ones which prevailed with Brutus. Cassius hated 
Caesar, because he was “ called so great.” A con- 
spiracy was formed, and Caesar fell, stabbed by twenty- 
three sword-thrusts. 

After his death, Cicero, who had no part in it, and 
knew nothing of the conspiracy beforehand, endeav- 
ored to bring about tranquillity by getting for the sev- 
eral conspirators commands in the provinces, and by 
putting forward Octavius Caesar against Mark Antony, 
who seemed inclined to take advantage of the reac- 
tion which followed the death of Julius Caesar. But 
Antony, after having been once defeated, made propo- 
sals to Octavius to join with himself and Lepidus in a 
new triumvirate, and to act against the republican 
party, which was headed by Brutus and Cassius. They 
met on a little island in the river near Bologna, and 
arranged tables of proscription, which included Cicero • 
and the execution of their bloody plans revived the 


200 


SKETCHES OF IilSTOKY. — HOME. 


horrors of the days of Marius and Sylla. There fol- 
lowed, of course, a war with Brutus, who governed 
Macedonia, and with Cassius, who governed Asia. 
These generals had seventeen legions, and the decisive 
battle was fought with the triumvirs at Philippi. 

The battle was lost, chiefly through the too hasty 
discouragement of Cassius, who, supposing it lost 
before it actually was, killed himself. Some days after, 
seeing all was really lost, Brutus slew himself, as did 
other noble Romans. This was the supreme act of 
their stoical religion. 

The triumvirs conquered, but their union was based 
on no great principle. It was not long before Caesar 
and Antony were at war. Their decisive battle was 
fought on the sea at Actium. Antony was vanquished ; 
and he killed himself, together with Cleopatra, to 
whose love he had given himself up. Octavius now 
became Augustus, and, by the shadow of the old 
Roman senate, was clothed with one office after 
another, and became the first Roman emperor. In 
his reign the Christian era commenced. 


The limits we have prescribed to ourselves render 
it impossible to give sketches of modern history. The 
foregoing sketches of ancient history are intended to 
assist those instructors of common schools, who have 
time to give but little instruction in history to their 
pupils, showing them how to connect the dates of time 
into general outlines, and awaken a curiosity, to be 
satisfied by private reading, in the course of the future 
life, out of school. If there is faithfulness in exercising 
the pupils upon the Charts, during the whole period 
of school-going, by a weekly repetition of the dates, 
this desultory reading will not, as it is now apt to 
do, inextricably confuse the chronology; but all events 
and persons will take their places in the map of time 
easily, and thus be seen in their relations. 


BIOGRAPHICAL CHART. 


201 


Many, exercises should be tried, to give variety and 
interest to the lesson. The names of the principal 
persons mentioned in one century can be distributed to 
the members of a class, and each one be required to 
bring a biography or some anecdotes of the individual 
fallen to his lot, having sought information in Ency- 
clopedias, the Conversations Lexicon, or books of 
biography. Of the latter there are multitudes, and the 
Messrs. Abbott are enriching children’s libraries with 
many admirably told lives. 

It would also be a good plan to make, correspond- 
ing to the Historical Chart, a Biographical Chart, in 
which the nine subdivisions of the square representing 
the year should be appropriated to different professions: 
thus, the first to architects and sculptors ; the second 
to painters ; the third to musicians ; the fourth to 
poets ; the fifth to other authors ; the sixth to states- 
men ; the seventh to mechanical inventors ; the eighth 
to scientific geniuses ; the ninth to individuals cele- 
brated for their character or some action. The colors 
might follow the countries of the individuals, and the 
letters b, d, f, might be put into the year indicated, 
according to whether the birth, death, or merely the 
flourishing of the individual be designated. 

Some biographical dates, however, can be indicated 
upon the Historical Chart, by using the three lower 
subdivisions, and painting a circle instead of a square 
in them. 

A complete list of dates, of all kinds, can be obtained 
by reference to a book of chronology of which George 
P. Putnam, its author, is about publishing a second 
edition, at No. 155, Broadway, New York. This 
book is called an “Introduction and Index to Univer- 
sal History, Biography, and Useful Knowledge ; com- 
prising a chronological, contemporary, and alphabetical 
record of important and interesting occurrences, from 
the earliest period to the present time ; with copious 
lists of eminent and remarkable persons, &c. ; to which 
is added literary chronology, and the latest statistical 


202 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


views of the world.” This book makes three hundred 
and fifty finely printed pages, and is an invaluable pos- 
session to almost all descriptions of persons. It should 
be in every school library. 

In many schools there is already in use some Univer- 
sal History, — White’s, Tytler’s, Taylor’s, Muller’s, 
or S. G. Goodrich’s History of all Nations. The Chart 
can be used with all these histories, making some slight 
modifications of the earlier chronology, to bring it into 
correspondence with the Chart. Of course, we have 
adopted that calculation we thought of best authority. 
If, however, some instructor should prefer another cal- 
culation, although our model Chart will be in some 
measure useless to him, his pupils can use the blank 
centuries, and he can make a small model chart by 
pasting the centuries, after he has painted them, in 
order upon a piece of cloth. It would be perfectly 
easy to do this when the text-book is White’s History, 
because in that book the course of time is treated by 
centuries. 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 

In unknown Antiquity. Zoroaster, the Persian, and 
Job, the Arabian ; Orpheus, Linus, Thamyris, &c. 

Sixteenth Century before Christ. Moses, compiler 
and author of the Pentateuch ; Phinehas, supposed 
author of the book of Joshua ; Scamander, founder of 
Troy. 

Thirteenth Century before Christ. Probably, The- 
seus ; the Argonauts ; the seven chiefs of Thebes j and 
heroes of the Trojan war. 

Eleventh Century before Christ. Samuel, Saul, 
David. 

Tenth Century before Christ. Solomon, and proba- 
bly Hesiod and Homer. 

Eighth Century before Christ. Amos, Hosea, Joel, 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


203 


Obadiah, Micah, Isaiah, Nahum, and probably Lycur- 
gus, Iphitus, &c. 

Seventh Century before Christ. Habakkuk, Zepha- 
niah, and Jeremiah ; the Greek poets Tyrtaeus, Ar- 
chilochus, and Terpander ; Arion, Cypselus, and 
Periander, of Corinth ; Pausanias, builder of Byzan- 
tium ; Battus, founder of Cyrene, in Africa. 

Sixth Century before Christ. Baruch, Ezekiel, 
Daniel, Zachariah, and Haggai ; the Greek Alcaeus, 
Sappho, Solon, Epimenides, Stesichorus, Mimner- 
mus, Anacreon, and Corinna ; Thales, Chilo, Anachar- 
sis, iEsop, Anaximenes, Anaximander, Thespis, Herac- 
leitus, Protagoras, Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, d. 522. 

Fifth Century before Christ. Ezra, Nehemiah, and 
Malachi ; the Greek Simonides, d. 467 ; Aeschylus, d. 
456 ; Pindar, d. 442 ; Sophocles, b. 495 ; Euripides, 
b. 480 ; Bacchylides ; Hecataeus; Herodotus, b. 484; 
Thucydides, b. 471 ; orators, Gorgias, Antiphon, An- 
dorides, and Lysias, b. 458 ; Zeno, of Elea ; Ocellus 
Lucanus ; Anaxagoras, d. 428 ; Socrates, b. 468 ; 
Phidias; Empedocles; Parmenides; Aristippus; An- 
tisthenes ; Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse ; Zeuxis. 

Fourth Century before Christ. The Greek Aris- 
tophanes, d. 389 ; Diphilus and Menander, b. 342 ; 
Ctesias and Xenophon, d. 355 ; Isaeus, Dinarchus, 
Lycurgus, Isocrates, Demosthenes, b. 382, and JEs- 
chines, b. 389 ; Hippocrates, d. 357 ; Democritus, d. 
362 ; Plato, d. 347 ; Aristotle, d. 322 ; Epicurus, 
b. 341; Zeno; Pyrrho; Diogenes, the Cynic; Cal- 
listhenes ; Demosthenes d. 324 ; Praxiteles ; Apelles, 
the painter ; Damon and Pythias ; Dionysius, the ty- 
rant of Syracuse; Dion, d. 354; Timoleon. 

Third Century before Christ. The Greek Bion, 
Moschus, Lycophron, Callimachus, Theocritus, Aratus, 
Cleanthes, Apollonius Rhodius, Euclid, Zeno, Ar- 
chimedes, Eratosthenes; the Egyptian historian Mane- 
tho, Lelius, Sophonisba, d. 203 ; Fabius Pictor ; 
Cleanthes, d. 240; Chrysippus; Livius Andronicus; 
Berosus, of Babylon ; Theophrastus, d. 288. 


204 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


Second Century before Christ. Nicander ; Polybi- 
us ; Apollodorus ; Plautus ; Ennius ; Terentius ; 
Satyrus ; Aristobulus ; Nicander ; Lucius Accius ; 
Scipio Nasica, inventor of water-clocks, 159 ; Hip- 
parchus of Rhodes; John Hyrcanus, the first of the 
Asmoneans. 

First Century before Christ. Lucretius, b. 95 ; 
Catullus, b. 86 ; Virgil, b. 70 ; Horace, b. 68 ; Proper- 
tins, b. 59 ; Tibullus and Ovid, both b. 43 ; Hygerius ; 
Atticus, d. 33 ; Cicero, d. 43; Julius Caesar, b. 98 ; Sal- 
lust, b. 85 ; Cornelius Nepos ; Livy, b. 59 ; Varro, d. 28 ; 
Vitruvius ; Verrius Flaccus, d. 4 ; Meleager ; Conon, 
the mythologist ; Scymnus, the poetical geographer; 
Dionysius Periegetes ; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the 
antiquarian ; Diodorus Siculus ; Maecenas ; Ptolemy 
Appion, d. 97 ; Brutus ; Cato the younger ; Crassus ; 
Cassius ; Mark Antony ; Lucullus ; Sertorius ; Mithri- 
dates VII. of Pontus. 

First Century after Christ. Celsus, the physician ; 
Germanicus, b. 19, and Arminius, d. 20; Pliny the 
Elder, b. 23, and Pliny the younger, b. 61, (read 
Pliny’s Epistles ;) Plutarch, b. 50 ; Martial and 
Agricola, b. 40; Seneca, d. 65 ; Josephus, b. 35, d. 95 ; 
Epictetus ; Persius ; Phaedrus ; Strabo ; Pausanias ; 
Quintus Curtius ; Herodes Atticus, for whose life 
see the second volume of Gibbon’s Decline and Pall 
of the Roman Empire ; also see Mrs. Hamilton’s Life 
of Agrippina, for a vivid picture of female manners 
at the court of the Caesars ; the twelve Apostles, for 
which see the New Testament, and Lives of the Apos- 
tles ; Caractacus ; Boadicea. 

Second Century. Judah Hakkadosh, b. 120, author 
of the Babylonian Talmud, or “ Mishna ; ” the Greeks 
Lucian, the author of Dialogues of the Dead, b. 120 ; 
Justin Martyr, first Christian writer after those of the 
New Testament, d. 165 ; St. Ignatius ; Polycarp ; 
Galen, the physician, b. 131 ; the Latins Quintilian, 
d. 122; Juvenal, the satirist, d. 128; Tacitus, one of 
the greatest of historians, d. 135 ; Apuleius, author 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


205 


of the Golden Ass, an extraordinarily lively picture of 
the times in which he lived, and in which occurs the 
story of Psyche, b. 147 ; Aulus Gellius ; Ptolemy, the 
Egyptian astronomer. 

Third Century . The Christian Fathers, Tertullian, 
d. 245; Antony, b. 251 ; Cyprian, d. 258 ; Origen, d. 
253; Manichjeus, d. 274; Odenatus, d. 267, the hus- 
band of Zenobia, who was the patron of Longinus ; 
Porphyry, 233 ; Plotinus, 270 ; Gregory Thauma- 
turgus ; Papinian, a great lawyer ; Julius Africanus ; 
Ammonius ; Odin, in Scandinavia. 

Fourth Century. The Christian Fathers, Lactan- 
tius, d. 325 ; St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, b. 354; 
Chrysostom, b. 344 ; Arius, d. 336 ; Basil, d. 379 ; 
Athanasius, d. 371 ; Ambrose, d. 387 ; Gregory Na- 
zianzen, d. 389 ; Gregory of Nyssa, d. 396 ; Eusebius. 
Probably Ossian, the Caledonian bard ; Prudentius, 
Claudian, and Anson ius, Latin poets ; IJlfila, translator 
of the gospel into Gothic. 

Fifth Century. Cyril, d. 443 ; Jerome, d. 420 ; 
Boethius, b. 455 ; Zosimus ; Socrates, b. 389 ; Sozo- 
men and Theodoret, both d. 450 ; Nemesius ; Proclus, 
the theologian, d. 445 ; Proclus, the New Platonist, d. 
500 ; Attila, the Hun, d. 453 ; Macrobius ; Pelagius ; 
St. Patrick; Nestorius ; Eutyches. 

Sixth Century. Gildas ; Gregory of Tours, the first 
French chronicler, b. 554; Belisarius, d. 565; St. 
Benedict, founder of monasteries, d. 547 ; Gregory I., 
the Great, the pope who first sent Christian missiona- 
ries to the Anglo-Saxons, b. 544 ; Narses, the imperial 
general, d. 567 ; Mahomet, b. 569. The Spanish 
Anian, Fulgentius Ferrandus, and Martin. The 
Greeks, Stephanus, Procopius, Olympiodorus, Indico- 
pleustes, Evagrius, Agathius, Simplicius, and Triboni- 
anus ; Lech, first legislator of Poland ; Cassiodorus, 
tutor to Theodoric ; the British bards, Aneurin, Tali- 
esin, Llywarch Hen, and Merdhin, (see Turner’s 
Anglo-Saxons, Appendix ;) Prince Arthur, d. 542. 

Seventh Century . The Latin historian of the 

18 


206 


.BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


Lombards, Secundus, d. 615 ; the Byzantine histo- 
rians, Theophanes and Theophylactus, Simocotta ; the 
Anglo-Saxons, Caedmon, Aldhelm, Nennius, and Bede, 
h. 675 ; the French Marculfe ; the Spanish chroni- 
clers, Isidore and John of Biclair ; also Ildefonso. St. 
Augustine, apostle to the Anglo-Saxons, d. 604, the 
same year that Ethelbert, king of Kent, founded St. 
Paul’s Church and the archbishopric of Canterbury ; 
Sigebert, king of East Anglia, founder of the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge in 644; Callinicus, inventor of 
Greek fire in this century. Arabic poets, Lebid, b. 622 ; 
Zohair ; Amrulkais, and physician Aharun. Pepin 
d’Heristal, mayor of the French Palace, d. 714. 

Eighth Century . The Latin historian of the Lom- 
bards, Paul Warnefrid ; the Greek Damascenus and 
George the Monk ; the French chronicler Fredigaire; 
Alcuin ; Charles Martel, d. 741 ; Stephen, the first 
pope, who was exarch of Ravenna ; Adrian I. receives 
the ecclesiastical state from Charlemagne. Kenneth, 
conqueror of the Piets, and first king of all Scotland ; 
Arabic, Abun Massab, Abunowas, Rehashi, Abu 
Obud, Mohammed ben Omar, Jufar and Abu Hani- 
fek ; Abdallah. Ina, king of Wessex. 

Ninth Century. The Greek historians, Nicephorus, 
Syncellus, John Malalas, Theodorus Studites, and 
Photius ; Theodulph, Hincmar, Abbon, Agobard, Er- 
chempert ; Anastasius, author of Lives of the Popes ; 
the British Asser, biographer of Alfred the Great ; 
John Scot Erigena, d. 888 ; the German poet Ot- 
fried. Eginhard, biographer of Charlemagne ; Nithard, 
historian, d. 853 ; Rabanus Maurus and Gottschalk ; 
Ado, the French chronicler, d. 875 ; the Spanish 
Eulogius and Alvarez ; Arabic, Temam and Bochteri, 
Kotaibah, Abu Jafar, Abu Mohammed, Abdallah, 
Wahab, Abuzeid, Serapion, Almamon, Bahali, Alfra- 
gan, Nasir Khosru, Albumazar, Bochari, Geber. 

Tenth Century. Elfrida; Dunstan, (see History 
of Anglo-Saxons, by Turner;) Luitprand ; Leontius; 
Genesius ; Constantine Porphyrogenitus ; Ethelwerd ; 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


207 


Witikind ; Regina, d. 915 ; Hroswitha; Notger; Bal- 
heims ; the French Adalberon, Flodoard, and Dudon. 
The Icelandic poet Hjalti ; Arabic, Iba Doraid, d. 931 ; 
Almotanabbi, d. 965 ; Said ben Batrik ; Eutychius ; 
Massudi ; Ibu Haukal ; Albategni ; Rases ; Ben Musa ; 
Azophi ; Alforabi; Geuhari. 

Eleventh Century. Ferdusi, the Arabic poet, d. 
1020 ; Avicenna ; Abulcazes ; Ibn Mesua ; Arzachel ; 
Jelaleddin; Almuyadad ; Abul Ola; Hildebrand, or 
Gregory VII., first despotic pope, d. 1085 ; Lanfranc, 
d. 1089; Isaac of Cordova, d. 1094 ; the Spanish Cid, 
Rodrigo di Bivar, d. 1099 ; George Cedrenus ; John 
Xiphilinns ; John Scylitza ; Theophylactus ; Ingulph 
and Eadmer ; Witpo ; Willeram ; Dithmar ; Adam of 
Bremen ; Lambert ; Sigebert ; Kosmas ; Fulbert ; 
Aimoin ; Gerbert ; Abon ; Berenger ; Yaroslav, law- 
giver of Russia; Godfrey de Bouillon, d. 1100; 
Robert Guiscard, d. 1085 ; Aretino, inventor of musical 
characters ; Macbeth ; Earl Godwin. 

Twelfth Century. Boemond, d. 1111 ; Peter the 
Hermit, d. 1115 ; William of Poictiers, first troubadour, 
d. 1126; Maimonides, b. 1131; Hildebert, d. 1133; 
Abelard, d. 1142; Bernard of Clairvaux, d. 1153; 
Anna Comnena, d. 1148 ; Arnold of Brescia, d. 1155 ; 
Peter Lombard, d. 1164; Thomas a Becket, d. 1170; 
Abenezza, d. 1174; Averroes, 1198; Egez Monez ; 
Gorjzalo Hermiguez ; Bechoda ; Geoffrey Gaimar, of 
Monmouth ; Rob. Wace ; Fouques ; Alexandre de 
Bernai ; Guibert ; Pierre Theutbode ; Marbodaeus ; 
Suger; St. Victoire ; Anselm; Alain d’Isle ; Henry 
of Veldech, Minnesinger ; Berthold Constantiensis ; 
Otto ; Hermold ; Mangold ; the Icelandic Thorwald ; 
Saemund of the elder Edda ; Aro ; Saxo-Grammaticus ; 
Sunesen ; Axal ; Sueno ; Russian Nestor of Kiev, d. 
1115; Theodosius; Sylvester; Simeon of Susdal ; 
Fair Rosamond, poisoned by Queen Eleanor. 

Thirteenth Century. Cimbabue, b. 1240 ; Ghiotto, 
b. 1270 ; Accorso, d. 1229 ; Albertus Magnus, d. 1280, 
the tutor of Thomas Aquinas, who d. 1274 ; Alexander 


208 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


Nevskoi, d. 1262 ; Daniel Arnaud, d. 1220 ; Michael 
Scott, d. 1291 ; Ghengis Khan, d. 1227 ; the Greeks, 
Joel, Glycus, Acominitus, Pachymer, Nicephorus, 
Acropolita, d. 1282; Guido of Colonna ; Brunetto 
Latina, d. 1294; Dante, b. 1265; Guido Cavalcanti, 
d. 1300; Pietro dalle Vigne, d. 1249; Marco Polo; 
Bonaventura; G. Durand; Pietro d’Albano ; Torre- 
giano Rustachelli; Robert of Gloucester; Thomas 
(Lermout) the Rhymer ; Roger Bacon, d. 1292; John 
of Novogorod ; Saadi, d. 1296 ; Elfarage ; Bohadin ; 
Abdollatif; Abuldem; El Harawi ; Abulfarage ; Elma- 
cin; Fadlallah ; Baca; Caswin ; Beithar ; Nasireddin; 
the Polish Kadlubek, d. 1226; Boguphelus, d. 1253; 
Martin Polonus, d. 1278; Vitellio ; Icelandic, Snor. 
Sturleson of the younger Edda, d. 1241; Suerren; 
Danish, Sturla Theridsen ; Dutch, John V. Maerlant ; 
Melis Stoke. Spanish, Gonzalo, Berceo, Rodrigo Xime- 
nes, d. 1245; B. de Penafort, d. 1275; Raimond Li- 
cello, b. 1236. French, John iEgidius ; William le 
Breton ; William de Lorris ; P. Gautier ; Jean de Meun ; 
Esteve de Bezier ; Pierre de Poictiers ; Geoffrey de 
Villehardouin ; Phil. Mouskes; W. Rubruquis ; Jean 
de Joinville, b. 1260 ; Yincentius de Beauvais ; Robert 
de Sorbonne, d. 1271; German, Gunther ; Freydank ; 
Arnold of Lubeck, chronicler of Slavi ; Epko of Rep- 
gow ; John Semeca; Alb. Magnus ; Henry Dandalo ; 
Simon de Montfort ; Robert Grosteste. 

Fourteenth Century . Italian, Urban YI. and Clem- 
ent VII. make schism of the West, 1378 ; Gioio in- 
vents mariner’s compass, 1302; Barberino and G. 
Andreas, d. 1348; Villanovan, d. 1313; D’Ascoli, d. 
1327; Rienzi, d. 1354; Ferreti, b. 1356; Marino 
Faliero, d. 1355 ; Joanna I. of Naples, f. 1343 ; Pe- 
trarca, d. 1374; Boccaccio, d. 1375 ; Dante, d. 1321; 
Spanish, Juan Manuel, d. 1362. French, John Frois- 
sart, b. 1337 ; Peter Langtoft ; Bernard Gordon ; John 
of Paris ; Durand ; Occam ; Duguesclin, d. 1380 ; Ma- 
lay, last grand master of the Knights Templars, burnt 
alive, 1314. Dutch, John Yan Eyck, b. 1370; Jan 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


209 


Van Helen ; Heij Van Holland ; Claes Willems ; Ge- 
rard Groot. Persian, Hafiz, d. 1325. German, Wil- 
liam Tell, d. 1354 ; Schartz invents gunpowder, 
1330; John Huss, b. 1376; Rudger of Manessa ; 
Henry Prauenlob ; Boner ; Heinrich von Rebdorf; 
Heinrich von Hervorden ; Jacob von Konigshofen ; 
John Schildeberger ; John Tauler. English, Duns 
Scotus, d. 1308 ; Lawrence Minot, d. 1352 ; Higden, 
d. 1360; Knighton, d. 1370; John Mandeville, d. 1372; 
Edward, the Black Prince, d. 1376 ; Wat Tyler, f. 
1381; Wicliffe, d. 1384; Barbour, d. 1396; Chau- 
cer, d. 1400 ; Davie ; Langlade ; Richard of Chiches- 
ter ; Matthew of Westminster ; John Fordun ; Walter 
Burleigh ; H. de Bracton ; John Gower. Greek, Can- 
tacuzenus ; Michael Ducas; Codinus ; Plan tides ; Pi- 
latus ; Metochita ; Callistus Xantopulus ; Philes, d. 
1340 ; Arabic, Abulfeda, d. 1333 ; Novairi, d. 1331 ; 
lbn al Wardi, d. 1358; E. Hajan, d. 1344; Moham- 
med Ibn Baluta. Polish, Ciolek. Tamerlane, b. 1336. 

Fifteenth Century. Italian, Yerrochio, b. 1422; 
Perrugino, b. 1446; Calepino, b. 1435; Amerigo Ves- 
pucci, b. 1451; Savanorola, d. 1462; Montagnana, 
d. 1460; Manetti, d. 1679; Philelphus, d. 1481; 
Hugh de Carpi, inventor of etching, b. 1486 ; Poggio, 
d. 1459 ; Lorenzo Yalla, d. 1457 ; Guarino, d. 1460 ; 
Accolti, d. 1466; iEneas Sylvius, d. 1464; Tosca- 
nello, d. 1482 ; Poliziano and Pico de Mirandola, d. 
1494 ; Blondus, d. 1483 ; Lorenzo de Medici, d. 1492 ; 
Columbus, b. 1442; Ficinus, 1499; Pulci, d. 1487; 
Leonardo Bruni ; Foscari ; Iieonardo di Pisa; Buonac- 
corsi, d. 1496. Spanish, Yillena, d. 1434 ; Juan de 
Mena, d. 1456; Mendoza, d. 1458; Torque mada, d. 
1468; Card. Ximenes, b. 1437; Gonsalvo di Cor- 
dova, b. 1443 ; Perez de Guzman. French, Chartier, 
d. 1438 ; D’Auvergne, d. 1508 ; Marot, b. 1463 ; 
Philip de Commines, b. 1445 ; Henry of Balma, d. 
1439 ; St. Bruno, d. 1444 ; Joan d’Arc, d. 1431 ; En- 
guerrand de Monstrelet, d. 1453 ; Charles the Bold, 
killed 1477. Dutch, Edmund Dinter, d. 1448; Van- 
18* 


210 


BIOGRAPHICAL BATES. 


der Heyden, d. 1473 ; Wilt; Dirk von Munster. Swe- 
dish, Eric Olai ; Bryn. Karlsson. German, Hammer- 
lein ; Hans von Rosenplut ; Heinrich von Alkmaer ; 
Conrad Celtes ; Murier ; Yon Andlo ; Behaim ; Bry- 
denbach ; Botho ; Thomas a Kempis, d. 1471 ; Reuch- 
lin, b. 1454; Frithemius, b. 1462; Gabriel Brie, d. 
1495 ; Jerome of Prague and Huss, d. 1416 ; Faust, 
d. 1466, and Guttemberg, d. 1468, invent printing. 
English, Skelton, d. 1529 ; Walsingham, d. 1440 ; 
Littleton, d. 1487; William Caxton, d. 1492; John 
Lydgate ; Henry the Minstrel ; Hawes ; Fortesque ; 
Andrew of Wyntown ; Hardyng ; Douglas of Glaston- 
bury ; Lord Cobiiam. Greek, George Castriot, (Scan- 
derberg,) d. 1467; Chalcondyles ; Phranza ; Gemistius, 
d. 1450 ; George of Trebizond, d. 1468 ; Bersarion, d. 
1472 ; Theodore Gaza, d. 1478 ; Argyrophilus ; Tar- 
choniata, d. 1500. Persian, Jami ; Sheriffedin ; Khor- 
demin. Arabic, Babacushi ; Zeinedden Abulhassan ; 
Arabshah, d. 1450. Polish, Kromer ; Duglosz. 

Sixteenth Century. Italian, Giorgione, d. 1511; 
Torre, d. 1512 ; Bramante d’ Urbino, d. 1514 ; Anguil- 
lara, d. 1517 ; Leonardo da Vinci, d. 1520; Correg- 
gio, d. 1534; Albert Durer and Machiavelli, d. 
1528; Andrea del Sarto, (Vannuchi,) Sannazar and 
Berni, d. 1530: Perrugino, d. 1529; Guarini, b. 1538; 
Guicciardini and Mazzuolo, d. 1540 ; M. Angelo Buo, 
narotti, d. 1563; M. A. Caravaggio, b. 1569; Julio 
Romano, d. 1546; Vasari, d. 1574; Titian, d. 1576 ; 
Tintoretto, d. 1594; Benvenuto Cellini, d. 1570; 
Gougon, d. 1572 ; Paul Cagliari, (Veronese,) d. 
1588 ; Alexander Farnese, d. 1592 ; Galileo, d. 1564 ; 
Molza, d. 1544 ; Trissino, d. 1550 ; Vida and Varchi^ 
d. 1566; Ariosto, d. 1533; Bernardo Tasso, d. 1575; 
Torquato Tasso, d. 1595 ; Giraldi, d. 1573 ; Grazzina, 
d. 1583; Ascolti, d. 1532; Bembo, d. 1547 ; Alberti, 
d. 1552; Borghini, d. 1580; Speroni, d. 1588; Adriani, 
d. 1579; Castiglione, d. 1529; Aldus, d. 1574; Lan- 
cellotti, d. 1591; Doria, d. 1560; Fiesco, d. 1547 ; 
Baguioli and Ammirato, d. 1600. English, Sir T. 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


211 


More, d. 1535 ; Earl Surrey, d. 1547 ; Roger Ascham, 
d. 1568 ; Hollingshed, d. 1581 ; Sir Philip Sidney, 
d. 1586; Marlowe, d. 1593; Spenser, d. 1598; Shak- 
speare, b. 1564 ; Napier, Lylie, and Fitzherbert, b. 
1550; Camden, b. 1551; Burleigh, (Cecil,) d. 1578; 
Hawkins, originator of English slave trade, d. 1595 ; 
Fox, d. 1587; Sebastian Cabot, b. 1477 ; Wolsey, 
d. 1530; Cranmer, d. 1556; Tyndal, 1536; Bonner, 
d. 1569 ; Lady Jane Grey, d. 1554 ; Rogers, Latimer, 
Ridley, and Hooper, d. 1555 ; Bacon, b. 1561 ; Sir 
Walter Raleigh, b. 1552 ; John Knox, d. 1572; 
Drake, d. 1596 ; Frobisher, d. 1594 ; Hooker, d. 1600, 
German, Pfinzing ; Kranz, d. 1517 ; Wimpfelingen, 
d. 1528 ; Pirkheimer, d. 1530 ; Aventin, d. 1534 ; 
Zuinglius, d. 1531 ; Paracelsus, d. 1541; Luther, d. 
1546; Melanchthon, d. 1560; Gessner, d. 1565 ; 
Tschudi, d. 1572; Kepler, b. 1571; Brill, d. 1584; 
Hans Sachs, d. 1574. Dutch, Erasmus and Secundus. 
d. 1536 ; Lipsius, b. 1547 ; Counts Egmont and Hoorn, 
d. 1568 ; Schott, d. 1552 ; John of Leyden ; Byns ; 
Fruitiers ; Marnia ; Yisscher ; Spieghel; Erpenius, b. 
1584. French, Rabelais and De Thou, d. 1553 ; 
Montaigne, d. 1533; Sully, b. 1560; Coligny; D’Au- 
bigne ; J. J. Scaliger, b. 1540; J. C. Scaliger, d. 1558; 
Bayard, d. 1524; Malherbe, d. 1556; R. Stephens, 
d. 1559; H. Stephens, d. 1590; Bourdaloue, d. 1532; 
Regnier, d. 1573; Xavier, d. 1552; Servetus, d. 1553; 
Calvin, d. 1561. Spanish, Yasco de Gama, d. 1524; 
Garcilasso de la Yega, d. 1536; Oliva, d. 1539; J. Luis 
Yives, d. 1540 ; Guevara and Boscan, d. 1544; Pizar- 
ro, d. 1541; Cervantes, d. 1549; Cortes, d. 1554 ; 
Loyola, d. 1556 ; Las Casas, d. 1564 ; Montemayor, 
d. 1561; Ferreira, d. 1569; Mendoza, 1575 ; Leon, 
1591; Herrera, d. 1578 ; Castillejo, d. 1596; Bermu- 
des, d. 1589; Argensola, d. 1575; Zurita, d. 1580; 
Mariana, b. 1537 ; Ercilla, Molina, and Acosta, d. 1600. 
Portuguese, Andrada, d. 1535 ; Yicenti, d. 1557 ; Go- 
vea, d. 1565 ; Camoens, d. 1579 ; Barros, d. 1570 ; 
Ribeyro; Miranda, d. 1558. Greek, Chalcondylas, 


212 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


d. 1513; William Grocyn. Danish, Arrebo, d. 1587; 
Tycho Brahe, b. 1546. Swedish, Olaus Magnus ; 
John Magnus, d. 1544 ; Lagerlorf, d. 1599. Polish, 
Copernicus, d. 1543 ; Gornecki ; Nargiowic ; Koka- 
nowski ; Cawalezcwski ; Stryjkowski. Barbarossa, d. 
1518. 

Seventeenth Century. English, Beaumont, d. 1616; 
Daniel, d. 1619; Sir W. Temple, b. 1629; Burton, d. 
1639; Ben Jonson, d. 1637; Fletcher, d. 1625; 
Ford and Massinger, d. 1639; South, b. 1633; John 
Locke, b., and E. Fairfax, d., 1632 ; Lord Fairfax, d. 
1671; Laud, d. 1645; Drayton and Dryden, d. 1631; 
Donne and Vane, d. 1662; Wither, d. 1667 ; Shirley, 
d. 1666; Suckling, d. 1699; Denham, Cud worth, 
Butler, and Bunyan, d. 1688.; Hampden, d. 1643; 
Milton, d. 1674; Sir H. More and Waller, d. 1687; 
Cowley and Pomfret, d. 1667; Maxwell, d. 1678; 
Rochester and Sir Peter Lely, d. 1680 ; Leighton and 
Roscommon, d. 1684; Otway, d. 1685; Fuller, d. 
1661; Clarendon, d. 1673; May, d. 1650; Burnet, 
b. 1643; Prior, b. 1664; Izaak Walton, d. 1683; 
Whitlock, d. 1676; Prynne, d. 1667 ; Harvey, d. 
1657 ; Selden, d. 1654; Usher, d. 1656; Hobbes, d. 
1679; Monk, d. 1670; Chillingworth, d. 1644; 
Barrow, d. 1677 ; Jeremy Taylor, d. 1667; Algernon 
Sidney and Lord Shaftesbury, d. 1683 ; Flamsteed 
and Newton b. 1642; Sir Thomas Browne, d. 1682; 
Evelyn, b. 1620; Phillips, b. 1676; Farquhar, b. 
1678; Sydenham and Sherlock, d. 1689; Parnell, b., 
and Sir Matthew Hale, d., 1676; Tillotson, d. 1694; 
Baxter and Boyle, d. 1691; Brady, d. 1670; George 
Fox, d. 1690 ; Penn, b. 1644 ; Roger Moore and Inigo 
Jones, d. 1652 ; Lord Russell, d. 1683. Danish, Bor- 
ding, d. 1619; Pontanns, d. 1640; Kingo, d. 1634; 
Sturmius, b. 1635 ; Bartholine, d. 1629 ; Ole Worm, 
d. 1654. Icelandic, Torfaeus ; Ionas, d. 1640. Swe- 
dish, Stiernjelm; Kirsten, d. 1640; Banier, d. 1641; 
Rudbech, b. 1630. German and Dutch, Tilly, d. 
1632; Wallenstein, d. 1634; Prince Rupert, d. 1682; 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


213 


Paul Fleming, d. 1640; Boehmen, d. 1624; Spanheim, 
b. 1629 ; Guericke, d. 1686 ; Schalken, b. 1643 ; Ru- 
bens, d. 1640 ; Paul Potter, d. 1654 ; Rembrandt, 
d. 1647 ; Solomon Ruysdael, d. 1670 ; Jacob Ruys- 
dael, d. 1681 ; Snyders, d. 1657 ; D. Teniers, d. 1649; 
Teniers the younger, d. 1694; Vandyck, d. 1641; 
Wouvermanns, d. 1660; Van Tromp, d. 1653; De 
Ruyter ; De Witt, d. 1672; Groot, (Grotius,) d. 1645; 
Brandt, d. 1685 ; Huygens, d. 1695 ; Spinosa, d. 1677 ; 
Leusden, d. 1699. French, P. Corneille, d. 1674; 
T. Corneille, b. 1625 ; Racine, d. 1699; Boileau, d. 
1636; Moliere, d. 1673; St. Evremond, b. 1613; 
Rochefoucault, d. 1680; Madame de Sevigne, d. 
1694; Madame de Valliere, b. 1644; Montespan, f. 
1669 ; Madame Guyon, b. 1648 ; Fenelon and Dacier, 
b. 1651; Bossuet and Pascal, b. 1662; La Bruyere, 
d. 1696 ; Malebranche, b. 1633 ; Fontenelle, b. 
1657 ; Montfauqon, b. 1666 ; Massillon, b. 1663 ; Rol- 
lin, b. 1661; Descartes, d. 1650 ; Tillemont, d. 1698; 
Claude Lorraine, d. 1682; Lebrun, d. 1690; Lesuer, 
d. 1655 ; Perrault, d. 1688 ; N. Poussin, d. 1665 ; Gas- 
par Poussin, d. 1675 ; Mazarin, d. 1661 ; Retz, d. 
1679; the Guises; Richelieu, d. 1642; Lionne; 
Louvais ; Colbert, d. 1683 ; Turenne, d. 1675 ; 
Luxembourg, d. 1695 ; Noailles ; Catinat ; Lauzun. 
Italian, Chiabrera, d. 1637 ; Bentivoglio, d. 1644 ; 
Galileo, d. 1642; Campanella, d. 1693; Cavaliere 
and F. Colonna, d. 1647; P. della Valle, d. 1652; 
Strada, d. 1649; Nani, d. 1678; Leppi, d. 1664; Sal- 
vator Rosa, d. 1673; Maggi, d. 1699; Redi, d. 1697; 
Filicaja, b. 1642; Masaniello, d. 1646. Spanish, Q,ue- 
vedo, d. 1645; Lopez de Vega, d. 1635; Calderon, 
d. 1667 ; Ulloa, d. 1660 ; Tordesillas, d. 1625 ; San- 
doval ; Bleda; De Solis, b. 1686; Villegas, d. 1689; 
Argensola, d. 1631; Congora, d. 1638; Monteivan, 
d. 1639; Guevara, d. 1646; Espenel, d. 1634; Mu- 
sillo, d. 1682 ; Olivarez. Portuguese, A. de Andrada, 
d. 1633; J. F. Andrada, d. 1657; Coelho, d. 1658; 
Meneses and Brito, d. 1617; Bacellar, d. 1663; Vas- 


214 


BIOGRAPHICAL BATES. 


concellas; Macedo, d. 1682; Castanheira ; De Sylva; 
De Ceo, d. 1693. 

Eighteenth Century. Rowe, d. 1718 ; Prior, d. 
1721 ; Marlborough, d. 1722 ; Addison, d. 1719 ; 
Mandeville, d. 1773; Halley and Hammond, d. 1742; 
Steele and Dr. S. Clarke, d. 1729; Defoe, d. 1731; 
Vanbrugh, d. 1726; Congreve, d. 1728; Gay, d. 1732; 
Cumberland and Darwin, b. 1732 ; Priestley, b. 1733 ; 
Beattie, b. 1735; Tooke, b. 1736; Herschel and 
Wolcott, b. 1738; Wren and Susanna Centlivre, d. 
1723; Duke of Berwick, d. 1734; Potter, d. 1747; 
Blair, d. 1746 ; Waterland, Bentley, and Chambers, d. 
1740; Hutcheson, d. 1747; Swift and R. Walpole, 
d. 1745; Watts and Thomson, d. 1748; Somerville 
and Savage, d. 1743; Paley, b. 1743; Sloane, Sheri- 
dan, and Berkeley, d. 1753; Middleton, d. 1750 ; 
Pope and Goldsmith, d. 1744; Cheselden and Butler, 
d. 1752; Cooke, Collins, and G. Wakefield, d. 1756; 
Allan Ramsay and Dyer, d. 1758; Fielding, d. 1754; 
Byng, d. 1757 ; Vernon, Wolfe, and Eugene Aram, d. 
1759; Mary W. Montague, d. 1760; Richardson, 
Lord Bolingbroke, Hartley, and Doddridge, d. 1751 ; 
Sherlock, d. 1761; Young and Hogarth, d. 1765; 
Shenstone, d. 1763; Dodsley, d., and Ann Radcliffe, b., 
1764; Sterne, d. 1768; Jortin, Chatterton, Aken- 
side, Wakefield, and Smart, d. 1770 ; Foote, Gray, 
and Smollet, d. 1771; Chesterfield, d. 1773; Fergu- 
son and Lord Clive, d. 1774; Dodd, d. 1777; Dr. 
Arne, Lord Littleton, and Earl of Chatham, d. 1778 ; 
William Pitt, Junior, b. 1759; Hume and Burns, d. 
1776; Warburton, Garrick, and Wilkes, d. 1779; 
Blackstone and HaIiris, d. 1780 ; Kaimes, d. 1782 ; 
Brooke, d. 17S3 ; Johnson, d. 1784; Soame Jenyns 
and Lowth, d. 1787; Glover, d. 1789; J. Howard, 
A. Smith, and Warton, d. 1790; Wesley and Price, 
d. 1791 ; Sir Joshua Reynolds, Tytler, Arkwright, 
Lords Burgoyne. North, and Bute, d. 1792; Robertson 
and Hunter, d. 1793 ; G. Colman, Gibbon, Bruce, and 
Sir William Jones, d. 1794; Boswell, d. 1795 ; Mac- 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


215 


pherson and Reid, d. 1796; Mason, Milner, Sir H. 
Walpole, and Burke, d. 1797 ; Vancouver, d. 1798 ; 
Cowper and H. Blair, d. 1800. French, Rapin, d. 
1725; Villars, d. 1734; Vertot, d. 1735; Saurin, d. 
1730 ; Le Clerc and Prince Eugene, d. 1736 ; Mas- 
sillon, d. 1742 ; Le Sage, d. 1747 ; Rollin and J. B. 
Rousseau, d. 1741 ; Reaumer, d. 1757; Montesquieu, 
d. 1755; Calmet, d. 1757; Berruyer, d. 1751; Mau- 
pertuis, d. 1759; De Stael, b. 1766; Caylus, d. 
1765 ; Fontenelle, d. 1757; Henault and Vattel, d. 
1770 ; Helvetius and Guyot, d. 1771; Voltaire and 
J. J. Rousseau, d. 1778 ; Condillac, d. 1780 ; Turgot, 
d. 1781; D’Alembert, d. 1783; D’Anville, d. 1782; 
Diderot, d. 1784; Bufeon and La Perouse, d. 1788; 
Mirabeau, d. 1792; Bailly, d. 1793; Florian, Condor- 
cet, Lavoisier, La Roche, Jacquelein, Robespierre, 
the Girondins, d. 1794 ; Barthelemy, d. 1795 ; 
Raynal, d. 1796; Montluc, D’Aubenton, Beaumar- 
chais, Marmontel, d. 1799. Spanish, Candarno, d. 
1709; Ferraras, d. 1735 ; Luzan, d. 1754 ; Yriarte, 
d. 1790; Uiloa, d. 1795. Portuguese, Magalhaens, d. 
1790 ; Meneses, d. 1743. Dutch, Eliz. Wolff ; Leojis ; 
Klein; Van Alphen; Bellemy, b. 1757; Boerhaave, d. 
1738; Hoogeven, d. 1794; Van Svvieten, d. 1772 ; 
Ruhnkenius, d. 1798. Polish, Narusewicz. Swedish, 
Peringskiold, d. 1720; Olaf Dalen, d. 1763; Bellerman, 
d. 1796; Lagertririg, d. 1781; Linnjeus, d. 1778; 
Swedenborg, d. 1772. Danish, Holberg, d. 1754; 
Falster, d. 1752; Gram, d. 1748; Sneedorf, d. 1764; 
Ewald, d. 1781; Pontoppidan, d. 1764; Behring. 
Russian, Cantimir, d. 1744; Lomonosoff, d. 1765 ; 
Sumarohoff, d. 1777 ; KheraskofF, b. 1733 ; Kniaj- 
nind, d. 1794; Khemnilzer, d. 1784; Bugdenovitch, 
b. 1743; Vizia, d. 1792; Karamsin. b. 1765. German, 
Leibnitz, d. 1716; Vanderwerf, d. 1718; Heyne, b. 
1729; Richter, b.1732; Wieland, b. 1733; Pfeffel, 
b. 1736 ; Lavater, b. 1741 ; Goethe, b. 1742 ; Kant 
and Klopstock, b., and Gunther, d., 1724 ; Struve, d. 
i.738 ; Angelica KaufFmann, b. 1747, and Schulem- 


216 


BIOGRAPHICAL DATES. 


bourg, d. ; Wolff and Hagedorn, d. 1754 ; J. E. Schle- 
gel and Kleist. d. 1759; Voss, b. 1751; Schiller, b. 
1750; Handel, d. 1758; Vanbrugh, d. 1726; Fahren- 
heit, d. 1736; Gottsched and Daun, d. 1766; Kotze- 
bue, b. 1761; Haller and Zacharie, d. 1777; Gellert, 
d. 1769; Rabener, d. 1770; Mosheirn, d. 1755; Win- 
kelmann, d. 1768; Zollikofer, d. 1780; Euler and 
Gessner, d. 1783 ; Semler and Michaelis, d. 1791 ; 
Lessing, d. 1781; Burger and Baron F. Trenck, d. 1794, 
Mengs, d. 1779. Italian, Marchetti ; Forteguerra; Cre- 
cembini ; Zeno; Maffei, d. 1756; Muratori, d. 1750; 
Giannone, d. 1748 ; Metastasio, d. 1782 ; Goldoni, 
d. 1772; Alfieri, b. 1749; Tiraboschi, d. 1794; 
Morgagni, d. 3771; Algarotti, d. 1764; Zanolli, d. 
1777; Beccaria, d. 1795; Galvani, d. 1798; Piranesi, 
d. 1778; Vasi, d. 1782; Spallanzani, d. 1799. 

P. S. The above biographical memoranda do not 
exhaust the subject. On the other hand, it is a more 
full record than is necessary for the purposes of com- 
mon-school education. Instructors will find, however, 
that it is a great aid to the memory of historical events 
for their pupils to have a vivid conception of the lives 
and genius of individuals; and it has been found a very 
successful method to distribute to a class the several 
names of the distinguished persons in the history, that 
the members may instruct each other by relating their 
histories after the historical recitation is over. Besides 
the works already mentioned as sources of information, 
Crabb’s Universal Historical Dictionary is a good 
resource. The compiler of the present work cannot 
hope that there may be no typographical errors in so 
many dates as this manual contains; but if any are 
found, a table of errata will be given upon the paper 
covers of the accompanying book of blank centuries. 


THE END. 















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